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Electricity and Magnetism

Faraday’s "Ice Pail" Experiment continued

 The charged sphere is again lowered into the container..

This time the sphere is allowed to touch the inside of the container.

The leaf of the electroscope still does not change its position.

The charge on the sphere neutralises the induced charge on the inside of the sphere.

When the sphere is removed from the container the leaf of the electroscope still does not change its position.

The sphere (tested with another electroscope) is found to have lost all its charge.

Conclusions

An induced charge has the same magnitude as the inducing charge.

The charge on a conductor remains on the outside surface; there can be no net charge inside a hollow conductor (either there are equal quantities of opposite charge or there in no charge).

 

© David Hoult 2008