Question

a. We have a negatively charged rubber rod and a neutral pith ball that are far apart and don’t affect each other. The rubber rod is then brought near the pith ball but does not touch it. Will the pith ball be repelled, attracted, or not affected? Explain your answer in detail.

b. Now assume that we do the demonstration again starting from scratch and that the negatively charged rubber rod touches the neutral pith ball. Afterwards, the rubber rod is then moved a small distance away from the pith ball. Will the pith ball be attracted to the rubber rod, repelled by the rubber rod, or unaffected? Explain your answer in detail.

Answer 1

a. The pith ball is attracted to ngatively charged rod, due to induction. Because due to negative charge on the rod, postives will come on the side close to the rod in the pith ball. so opposite charges will attrack and hence it will be attracted.

Read about induction or attrction between charged and uncharged object to add more.

b. when braought in contact negative charge will be trasfered to the neutral pith ball untill both gain equal amount of charge .So similar charges on both of them so repulsion, in second case the pith ball will be repelled.