Recently I was taught that in a conductor charge resides only on the surface of the conductor and the net charge inside a conductor is zero and so is the net electric field.
But what if the conductor had two surfaces like in a spherical conducting shell?
Suppose we provide a charge 'Q' to a spherical conducting shell. Is the charge on the inner surface of the shell equal to zero or is the charge divided equally among the two surfaces(Q/2 on the outer surface and Q/2 on the inner surface)? I'm in a dilemma.
NOTE: Initially There is no charge inside the cavity of the shell.
Best Answer
Charges repel one another and will get as far apart as they can. Since the shell is a conductor, nothing is stopping them from moving to the outer surface which is as far apart as they can get from one another.