A football player pushes against another player trying to block him from moving any farther down the field. Which term best describes this example?

negative work
positive work
negative force
positive force

Question

A football player pushes against another player trying to block him from moving any farther down the field. Which term best describes this example?

 negative work
 positive work
 negative force
 positive force

anonymous · Answer

To describe the work done, we'd need more information. Work = Force * Distance Applied
So, we'd need to know which direction the player was moving. Was he pushing the other player backwards? Was he getting pushed backwards?

For every case, we need to define which direction is the "positive" direction. From my interpretation of the question, the direction the player is pushing is the positive direction. Therefore, the force he is applying would be a positive force.