Work

[melikazarei_3D]

What does negative and positive work mean, conceptually?

[Mei Tsao 1A]

Since work and energy are related, negative work means that the system is doing the work, and therefore losing energy. Positive work means that the system is gaining energy since work is being done on the system.

[Jasmine Winter 1A]

Negative work means that work is being done by the system while positive work means that work is being done on the system.

[Junguk Yoon 1J]

Negative or positive work is in regards to the system so negative work implies the system is losing energy and positive work implies that the system is gaining energy. Therefore, negative work is when work is done by the system and the system therefore loses energy in this process, while positive work is when work is done to the system and the system therefore gains energy.

[noahsteinmetz]

If we think of work in physics terms work is the force applied over a certain distance. As the object gets displace in a certain direction, if the force is applied in this certain direction along with the displacement then it is considered positive work. On the other hand, if the net displacement is one way but there is a force applied in the opposite direction of the displacement then it is considered negative work. Hope this helps!

[Suraj Kulkarni 2B]

Hi! So the difference in positive and negative work simply lies in whether work is being done on the system versus whether it's being done by the system. Work that is done by the system would be negative, whereas work done on the system is positive.

[Akilah Beatty 2k]

Negative work means the system is losing energy whereas positive work is the opposite and there is a gain in energy.