To understand the behavior of the electric field at the surface of a conductor, and its relationship to surface charge on the conductor. A conductor is placed in an external electrostatic field. The external field is uniform before the conductor is placed within it. The conductor is completely isolated from any source of current or charge. Which of the following describes the electricfield inside this conductor?

a. It is in thesame direction as the original external field.

b. It is in theopposite direction from that of the original externalfield.

c. It has adirection determined entirely by the charge on itssurface.

d. It is alwayszero.

Question

Physics

Sammy Ryan

14 June, 23:01

To understand the behavior of the electric field at the surface of a conductor, and its relationship to surface charge on the conductor. A conductor is placed in an external electrostatic field. The external field is uniform before the conductor is placed within it. The conductor is completely isolated from any source of current or charge. Which of the following describes the electricfield inside this conductor?

a. It is in thesame direction as the original external field.

b. It is in theopposite direction from that of the original externalfield.

c. It has adirection determined entirely by the charge on itssurface.

d. It is alwayszero.

+1

Answers (1)

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Rollie · Answer 1

D. It is always zero

Explanation:

When studying electrostatics, it was found that free charges that resided in the conductor are always zero. The best free charges resided more on the surface of the conductor, this implies that the field in the conductor could only be determined by the charges on the surface of the conductor which must be a uniform distribution. Since the conductor was completely isolated from the source of current or charge, it means the charge in the conductor is zero.