Question

Suppose a thin conducting wire connects two conducting spheres. A negatively charged rod is brought near one of the spheres, the wire between them is cut, and the charged rod is taken away. Which one of the following is true? a. The spheres will attract each other. b. The spheres will repel each other. c. There will be no electrostatic force between the spheres

Answer 1

Answer:

a. The spheres will attract each other.

Explanation:

When two conducting spheres are connected by a conducting wire and a negatively charged rod is brought near it then this will induce opposite (positive) charge at the nearest point on the sphere and by the conservation of charges there will also be equal amount of negative charge on the farthest end of this conducting system this is called induced polarization.

• When the conducting wire which joins them is cut while the charged rod is still in proximity to of one of the metallic sphere then there will be physical separation of the two equal and unlike charges on the spheres which will not get any path to flow back and neutralize.

• Hence the two spheres will experience some amount of electrostatic force between them.