What happens to the electric field inside a conductor when it reaches electrostatic equilibrium?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
What happens to the electric field inside a conductor when it reaches electrostatic equilibrium?
It becomes uniform
It becomes zero
It increases
It decreases
In electrostatic equilibrium, the electric field inside a conductor is zero.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: What happens to the electric field inside a conductor when it reaches electrostatic equilibrium?
Solution: In electrostatic equilibrium, the electric field inside a conductor is zero.
Steps: 6
Step 1: Understand what a conductor is. A conductor is a material that allows electric charges to move freely within it.
Step 2: Know what electrostatic equilibrium means. It is the state where charges in a conductor are at rest and not moving.
Step 3: Realize that when charges are at rest, they will rearrange themselves on the surface of the conductor.
Step 4: Remember that electric fields are created by electric charges. Inside a conductor, if there were an electric field, it would cause the charges to move.
Step 5: Since the charges are at rest in electrostatic equilibrium, this means there can be no electric field inside the conductor.
Step 6: Conclude that in electrostatic equilibrium, the electric field inside a conductor is zero.
