When you set something down on the ground wht kind of work are your arms doing?

Negative work.

Explanation:

Physically speaking, the term "work" is used when we refer to the work performed by a force, that is, Mechanical Work. Thus, a force applied in a body accomplishes a work when it produces a displacement in the body.

In this way, we can understand that:

In this case we can conclude that the work is negative, because the displacement of the "thing being put on the ground" is down, but the force made by the arms is up.

the independent variable, the one that is intentionally manipulated, is whether or not the car hits the barrier.

the dependent variable, the one that you measure the response in, is the distance that the washers travel.

come closer and become far apart and become steam/gas