What happens when you push a spring? How is this different than pulling it? (Hooke's Law)

When you push a spring you are putting force on it, or rather forcing the spring onto its self. This is different than pulling the spring because when you push it and let go it will spring but if you pull it its would not move as far as it would if you push it. Pulling the spring would most likely deform the spring will pushing it would cause it to spring back into place.

Hooke's law states that the force that extends or compresses a spring by some distance scales linearly with respect to that distance.