A scientist wipes a rubber rod with a wool cloth which leads to a negative charge on the rod. After this, the scientist touches the rod to a neutral metal sphere. This will transfer the negative charges from the rod to the sphere:
Which statement explains what will happen to the negative charge, and why?
A It will only spread to the air around the sphere, because negative charges need to occupy a big area.
B It will remain only on one spot of the sphere, because the low conductivity of the metal prevents the charges from spreading out.
C It will slowly move to the bottom of the sphere, because the charges are heavy and will sink to the bottom.
D It will spread uniformly over the surface of the sphere, because of the conducting nature of the sphere and similar charges push away from each other.
D It will spread uniformly over the surface of the sphere, because of the conducting nature of the sphere and similar charges push away from each other.
When the negatively charged rod is touched to the neutral metal sphere, the negative charges will be repelled from each other due to their like charge. This will cause the negative charges to evenly distribute themselves over the surface of the sphere to maximize the distance between them. This is known as electrostatic equilibrium.