Recent content by SharKCS11

Ok, thanks. That cleared up a lot.

Oh, I see, so the "F" in the equation is referring to the force that causes the potential energy, not the force that changes it?

I've been wondering for a while why force is the negative derivative of potential energy. In our books, they write that F=-dU/dx, and U=-W I don't really understand why it should be negative. Doesn't the force need to be positive in order to increase the potential energy? For example, when you...