Can Power Be negative if work is negative?

Question

power as in doing push-ups

Answer 1

Depending on your sign convention, power can be negative, but it's no longer power being produced, but power being consumed, instead. Or vice versa, again depending on your sign convention (ie in thermodynamics, positive power is power being produced, but in circuits, positive power is power being consumed).

Answer 2

This may just be an argument of semantics, but I suppose if you were to assign the notion that an upward movement was positive and a downward movement was negative, then you oscillate a weight from a spring.........

I strongly suspect the reality is that all power and work is positive. When a clock spring winds all the way down - it cannot unwind any further in a negative power mode.

Answer 3

I don't think that power can be negative, if work is negative, it is usually negative because it is indicating direction opposite to the work being done as positive.

Answer 4

YES

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