Answer to Question #147752 in Electric Circuits for Ave May

Question

How would you determine whether the charge on a particular rod is positive or negative?

Answer 1

In frictional charging process, when the glass rod is rubbed with silk, the electrons transfer from rubbed glass rod to silk easily. So, glass becomes positively charge and silk becomes negatively charged. Now, place our rod at rubbed glass rod. If our rod is repelled by the glass, then it has the same charge as glass that is positive. If our rod is attracted by the glass, then it has negative charge because same charges are repelled, and opposite charges are attracted.