Physics Electric Charge

Charging by Induction

Charging by induction is a method of charging an object without touching the object to any other charged object and using insulating objects to prevent any conduction other than the object that is being charged. Induction uses the process of polarization and insulation and a bit of conduction.

A common demonstration would be 2 metal balls and a charged object. The 2 metal objects are conductors and they have neutral charge. While for example, a negative charged balloon will polarize the metal balls and move the electrons from 1 ball to the other making positive and negative charge. The insulator stand will prevent the charge from going to the ground which will neutralize the charge.

Another demonstration that relates to the grounding system is nearly the same demonstration as the previous, but with only 1 metal ball, a charged balloon, and a grounding wire (your body/arm can be used as a grounding system as long as your feet are at the ground). The balloon can be charged in anyway, positive or negative. As the charged balloon polarizes the metal ball, the electron will move to the grounding wire/your arm and moves to the ground making the metal ball electric charged. If the balloon is a positive charged object then the metal ball will be a negative charged object, and vice versa.