Is it possible for a system to have negative potential energy?

Good morning.

Yes, it is possible.

Energy is a scalar quantity. The value of the potential energy is calculated the following way:



Where m is mass, g is the acceleration of gravity and h is the height.

Note that the height depends on the adopted referential, therefore, if we adopt, for example, a referential on the floor, if we dig a hole that has a depth of 1 meter, a ball that is put inside the hole will have negative potential energy due to the adopted referential, since h is negativa in this case.