In: Physics
Which of the following are true statements? Select all that apply.
1. Electrically neutral atoms have an equal number of electrons and protons.
2. Valence electrons reside in the atom’s outer shell and move freely through metalic materials.
3. Free electrons move more easily through insulating rather than conducting materials.
4. Only atoms can have a charge imbalance, not objects.
5. When a glass rod is rubbed with fur, the rod becomes negatively charged and the fur positively charged.
6. The Law of Conservation of Electric Charge states that existing electrons are moved from one object to another by friction and not created by friction.
7. A polarized object is net neutral with more positive charge at one end and more negative charge at another end.
8. Charging can occur by friction, contact, or induction.
9. When an object is ‘grounded’ through contact with the Earth, protons leave the ground and flow into the object.
10. The gravitational force is always attracting objects. The electrical force has a similar equation and is repulsive or attractive depending on the charge of each object.
1.True.
Explanation: Electrons have, by convention, negative charge and protons have charge opposite to that of electrons. If an atom is neutral, this means that it has net charge euqal to zero, which means that it has equal amount of positive and negative charges, and since charge is quantized, it requires that atom has an equal number of electrons and protons.
2.True.
Explanation: Valence electrons are outermost electrons of the atom, and thus, are least influenced by the attraction of the positively charged nucleus. Metals have very low ionization energy,which is the minimum potential required to remove the outermost electron from an atom. So their outermost electrons are almost free and they can roam throughout the material.
3.False.
Explanation: The reverse is true:Free electrons move more easily throughout the conductors than insulators. In fact insulators do not have any free electrons, which makes them less conductive of electricity, that's why the name insulators.
4.False.
Explanation: Objects are made of atoms. If we imbalnace the charge distribution of atoms making up the object, we can make the object as a whole either positive or negative. For example, when we comb our hairs, comb as a whole becomes posititvely charged while hairs beome negatively charged.
5.True.
Explanation: Due to friction, the electrons transfer from fur to the glass rod. leaving it negatively charged while fur becomes positively charged, due to lack of electrons.
6. True.
Explanation: According to conservation of charge law, charge can neither be created nor be destroyed. It can only be transferred from one object to the other, but the total charge is conserved.
7.True.
Explanation: Well, polarization involves redistribution of charge within an object itself, and not that object is charged from some other source. When charge is redistributed, the positive and negative charge centers are shifted from each other but the object as a whole remains electrically neutral.
8.True.
Explanation: These are the three fundamental methods of chraging: friction, induction and contact, with the less obvious but most important being charging by induction, which involves no physical contact but the object can still be charged.
9. False.
Exaplanation: Protons never move in any kind of charging process, it is the electrons who move from one object to other, with the void they left behind being treated as positive charges.
10.True .
Explanation: Gravitation and Electric force both follow the inverse square law(force is proportional to distance squared ) but there is a fundamental difference between them: Electric force, unlike gravity, can be attractive as well as repulsive, depending on the nature of the charged particles. If they are of same nature, the force is repulsive, and if they are of opposite nature, the force is attractive. While the gravitaitonal force is always attractive because it depends on mass only.