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Spring Problem Revisited



Good answers guys, I'm starting to see the light! But, I'm still
bothered by something. Let me restate the problem another way.
We have a horizontal, unstretched, Hookean spring connected at one end
to a rigid support. At the other end, I attach a mass m resting on a
frictionless surface. Now, I pull to the right on MASS m (not on the spring
itself) with force F=kx. The spring pulls back to the left on the MASS m (not
on me) with force F=-kx. Now, the sum of the horizontal forces acting ON THE
MASS is 0. NOW, how can the MASS (not the spring itself) ever accelerate?
By the way, Donald Simanek came close to answering this in his post,
but I'm wondering if anyone else has any insight.

Thanks much,
Steven Smotherman
Motlow State CC
Tullahoma, TN