And we could also use electron volts when we're talking about very small microscopic objects. Now. Work does have negative and a positive. Negative work simply means our object loses energy, while positive work means our object gains energy. Now, whenever a nonfictional force is applied, work can be found using the following equation work is equal to the force applied on our object, times the distance our object moves. And since work is, in fact a scalar, a vector times a vector gives us a dot product.