Induced Charge Resides On The Surface
Since the mobile charges in the interior of a metal object are free to move in any direction, there can never be a static concentration of charge inside the metal; if there was, it would attract opposite polarity charge to neutralize it. Therefore the mobile charges move under the influence of the external charge until they reach the surface of the metal and collect there, where they are constrained from moving by the boundary.
This establishes the important principle that electrostatic charges on conductive objects reside on the surface of the object. External electric fields induce surface charges on metal objects that exactly cancel the field within. Since the field is the gradient of the electrostatic potential, another way of saying this is that in electrostatics, the potential (voltage) throughout a conductive object is constant.
Read more about this topic: Electrostatic Induction
Famous quotes containing the words induced, charge, resides and/or surface:
“It is a misfortune that necessity has induced men to accord greater license to this formidable engine, in order to obtain liberty, than can be borne with less important objects in view; for the press, like fire, is an excellent servant, but a terrible master.”
—James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851)
“To fight aloud is very brave,
But gallanter I know,
Who charge within the bosom
The Cavalry of Woe.”
—Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)
“The thing that’s between us is fascination, and the fascination resides in our being alike. Whether you’re a man or a woman, the fascination resides in finding out that we’re alike.”
—Marguerite Duras (b. 1914)
“All forms of beauty, like all possible phenomena, contain an element of the eternal and an element of the transitory—of the absolute and of the particular. Absolute and eternal beauty does not exist, or rather it is only an abstraction creamed from the general surface of different beauties. The particular element in each manifestation comes from the emotions: and just as we have our own particular emotions, so we have our own beauty.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)