Charge Transfer
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If a charged conductor comes in contact, or is in close enough proximity, with another conductor, it is possible to transfer this charge to the second conductor. This process is called charge transfer. Charges cannot be created or destroyed; this is known as the Law of Conservation of Charge. Therefore, in the transfer of charge between two objects, the amount of charge gained by one object is equal to the amount of charge loss by the other. There are multiple ways that charge can be transferred such as through direct contact and through inductance.
Insulators vs Conductors
In an insulator, electrons are bounded tightly to atoms, which prevents charged particles from moving through the material. If charge is transferred to an insulator at a given location, the charge will remain at the location that the transfer occurred.
On the other hand, electrons are able to flow freely from particle to particle within conductors. When charge is transferred to a conductor, the charge is distributed evenly across the surface of the object via electron movement. The electrons will be distributed until the repelling force between the excess electrons is minimized. This is the main difference between insulators and conductors: insulators do not have mobile charged particles whereas conductors have mobile charged particles that allow for charge transfer through the free movement of electrons. Examples of insulators include rubber and air and examples of conductors include metals and salt water.
Transfer Charges by Conduction
Electrons move from one object to another (especially with metals) through points of contact. An example of this is rubbing a glass rod with silk. The glass rod will become positively charged and the silk will become negatively charged; this means that electrons were transferred from the glass rod to the silk, since protons are not removed from the nuclei. Rubbing two objects together is not necessary for charge transfer, but because rubbing creates more points of contact between two objects, it facilitates charge transfer.
Transfer Charges by Induction
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See also
http://www.physicsbook.gatech.edu/Charge_Motion_in_Metals http://www.physicsbook.gatech.edu/Polarization
Further reading
Books, Articles or other print media on this topic
External links
Internet resources on this topic: http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/estatics/Lesson-1/Conductors-and-Insulators http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/estatics/Lesson-1/Charge-Interactions
References
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