Question

Can power be negative in physics? I am doing a lab in which I run down the stairs as quickly as possible. They are 5.4m tall and my work is 5321.7 J. After calculating work, I got -5321.7 J. I am supposed to calculate my power used over 3 trials. The time for trial 1 was 4.69 and the seconds for trials 2 and 3 are 4.25. After calculating my power I got -1134.69 W and -1252.16 W. I am not sure if I got my power right. Is my power really negative or is my power positive?

Answer 1

Yes.

Step-by-step explanation:

A negative power would just represent a loss of power. So in your case it lost -1252.16 W