Can Newton's be negative?
Newton's, as a unit of force, cannot be negative. The Newton (N) is the SI unit for measuring force, named after Sir Isaac Newton, a prominent physicist. It represents the force required to accelerate a one-kilogram mass by one meter per second squared. Since force is a vector quantity, it has both magnitude and direction, but it does not have a negative value.
If you come across a situation where a force is described as negative, it usually means that the force is acting in the opposite direction of a chosen positive direction. In such cases, the negative sign is used to indicate the opposite direction, not a negative magnitude. However, when you calculate with such forces, you generally consider the magnitudes as positive values.
For example, if an object experiences a 10 Newton force in the positive x-direction, and a -5 Newton force in the negative x-direction, you can interpret the negative sign as indicating the opposite direction. However, when calculating the net force acting on the object, you would treat both magnitudes as positive and subtract 5 N from 10 N to get a net force of 5 N in the positive x-direction.
To summarize, Newton's as a unit of force cannot be negative, but the negative sign is sometimes used to indicate opposite directions when dealing with vector quantities.