Question

If you have charged an electroscope by contact with a positively charged object, describe how you could use it to determine the charge of other objects. Specifically, what would the leaves of the electroscope do if other charged objects were brought near its knob?

Answer 1

Explanation:

• When we have a pre-charged electroscope that is charged using a positive object then we observe that the leaves of the electroscope are spread wide in the diverging position due to the like charges of positive nature on the two leaves.

• As we know that the charges can only travel through the conductors hence the assembly of the electroscope from the contact knob to the leaves is made of conductor. So the charges spread uniformly on this conductor.

• Now we can use this as a tester of the other charges. When we bring a negatively charged object near the knob of the electroscope then the opposite charges i.e. positive charges accumulate near the knob due to attraction and the leaves of the electroscope go unstrained and get closer naturally.

• Contrarily when a positive charge is brought near the knob of the electroscope then the the uniformly distributed charges move away from the knob and accumulate at the farthest point and more deviation is observed on the leaves.