Changing the Direction of Work

logan3 · Nov 14, 2014

If I lift a mass up a certain distance and it creates a positive work quantity, then when I lower the object back down does the work become negative?

Thank-you

jbriggs444 · Nov 14, 2014

Yes, the work done by your hand on the block as you support it while lowering it is a negative quantity.

(The vector dot product of a force in one direction and a displacement in the opposite direction is negative)

Changing the Direction of Work

Discussion

Undergrad Measured Spectrum of Stopped Wood Organ Pipe Shows ALL Overtones

Graduate Does a moving particle count as a wave?

Undergrad Is Water's Volume Expansion Upon Freezing an Intrinsic Property?

High School Is it safe to fly in a spinning hollow asteroid?

High School The world is not enough

High School Another kinematics problem

Graduate On a paper by Udwadia and Kalaba

High School Inclined treadmills and Galilean Invariance

Insights Revisiting the Velocity-Time Function

Insights Remote Operated Gate Control System

Insights AI Enriched Problem Solving

Insights Thinking Outside The Box Versus Knowing What’s In The Box

Insights Why Entangled Photon-Polarization Qubits Violate Bell’s Inequality

Insights Quantum Entanglement is a Kinematic Fact, not a Dynamical Effect

Changing the Direction of Work

Discussion

Similar threads

What is the direction of work in this figure?

Why Does Changing the Direction of Δv Affect the Rocket Equation Results?

Graduate Direction of Work: Electron-Electron Repulsion

High School Grain direction for maximum tear resistance for a wire bound book

Undergrad How Does Changing Mass and Spring Force Affect Watch Oscillators?

High School Electric Field Direction: Are We Assuming a Universal Positive Frame?

How would we define a value for acceleration if only the direction is changing?

Graduate Direction of acceleration of an incline

Kinematics: Acceleration of a figure skater changing direction

Changing the direction of the acceleration Vector