MadSci Network: Physics
Query:

Re: Does the inside of a hollow metal sphere have a neutral Charge?

Date: Wed Sep 29 07:59:28 1999
Posted By: Demian Bertozzi, Grad student, Physics, UFSC
Area of science: Physics
ID: 935369087.Ph
Message:

Hello, Glen , the answer is short: No. Benjamin Franklin was one of the 
first men who notice that metals (or any conductors), when charged, have 
all of its free charges on its outter surface. Latter, Faraday did some 
weird experiences about electrical charge, one of them consisted in living 
inside an electrically charged hollow recipient for some time, and he 
didn’t notice any evidence that the recipient was charged, because there 
isn’t any electric field inside the metal at all. Even if you plug a wire 
inside a charged hollow sphere, the charges couldn’t break the potential 
wall between the outter surface and the inside, and there’s no electrical 
current, otherwise Faraday could not survive to tell us about this. 
Furthermore, in your question you guess that we could have a permanent 
electrical current, even without giving more energy to the system, which 
proved impossible in every experience until now. It’s the perpetual motion 
engine, that can’t exist.

Hope this helps

Any doubts to escrutinador@hotmail.com

D!



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