<Table> <Tr> <Td> Parallel </Td> <Td> </Td> <Td> Series </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> Parallel </Td> <Td> </Td> <Td> Series </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <P> More generally, two or more springs are in series when any external stress applied to the ensemble gets applied to each spring without change of magnitude, and the amount strain (deformation) of the ensemble is the sum of the strains of the individual springs . Conversely, they are said to be in parallel if the strain of the ensemble is their common strain, and the stress of the ensemble is the sum of their stresses . </P>

What is the combined spring constant k of the system