When it is said that charge "moves" throughout an object, like if negative charge moves to the edge of an object and the charges become polarized, does this mean that the electrons has moved to the edge of the object, or does it mean that negatively charged atoms moved to the edge of the object? Or does it mean that the actual magnitude of the charge contained in electrons moved to the edge of the object? If you have a negatively charged balloon and move it next to a piece of metal, the electrons are said to repel the electrons in the balloon and move as far away as possible. Does this mean that the electrons literally detach from their atoms and move away, or does it mean that the atoms containing the electrons moves away as well?
[Physics] What does the movement of charge in an object mean
chargeelectricityelectronselectrostatics
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When physicists say that a particle has electric charge, they mean that it is either a source or sink for electric fields, and that such a particle experiences a force when an electric field is applied to them.
In a sense, a single pair of charged particles are a battery, if you arrange them correctly and can figure out how to get them to do useful work for you. It is the tendency for charged particles to move in an electric field that lets us extract work from them.
A typical electronic device uses moving electrons to generate magnetic fields (moving electrons cause currents, and currents generate magnetic fields) and these magnetic fields can move magnets, causing a motor to turn. What is happening at a fundamental level is that an electric field is being applied (via the potential across the battery) that is causing those electrons to move.
If I wanted a magnetic field to be generated, I could get one from a single pair of charges, say, two protons placed next to one another. The protons will repel (like charges repel) and fly away from each other. These moving protons create a current (moving charge) which creates a magnetic field.
Your author is right when he says that charges attract or repel other charges. To help connect it to more familiar concepts, consider this: The negative end of your battery terminal attracts electrons and the positive end repels them. (The signs of battery terminals are actually opposite the conventional usage of positive and negative when referring to elementary charges. As a physicist, I blame electrical engineers.) The repelled and attracted electrons start moving, and these moving electrons can be used to do work.
Electricity is the flow of positive or negative charges in response to electric forces (an electric field). Static means something is not moving, but there is still an electric field.
What is happening is normally positive and negative charges occur in equal amounts everywhere, so there is no net charge. We say they cancel each other out. If you have more of one or the other, then there is a net charge (an imbalance, as your text states). Since opposite charges attract, another charge would feel a force towards this imbalance. Similarly, the imbalanced charge would feel a force due to other charges surrounding it (ones that aren't cancelled out). If you live in a dry climate you may know the sensation of your hair standing on end after rubbing a balloon on it. What happens is each hair has some extra charge deposited on it, and all these charges are repelling eachother, taking your hair with it.
We say it's static because the charges can't go anywhere. This is because the extra charge displaces the charges nearby it, pulling the opposite ones closer and pushing the same ones farther away. What's important is that it can't push these other charges very far (the material is not a conductor). We say it "polarizes" the material.
Even though the net charge of one of your strands of hair might be negative, and be repelled by other strands, the extra electrons have surrounded themselves with positive charges and are "stuck" in a sense. This is why you need friction to cause an imbalance of charges. You are overcoming this stickiness.
Now if you brought a conductor (e.g., metal) to the material, the charge can attach itself to the metal in the same way, (polarizing the material and then pulling itself towards opposite charges) but because charges on conductors can move around, the extra charge can flow more freely. The charge is still "stuck" to the conductor, but can move around inside the conductor.
Best Answer
Taking copper (atomic number 29) as an example of a good electrical conductor in the solid (and liquid) state.
On average there are positive copper ions Cu$^+$ with 28 orbiting (bound) electrons and for each ion one free/mobile (unbound) electron.
When no external electric field is applied these free electrons having thermal energy move about at random throughout the metal just like the molecules in a gas.
In the solid the positive copper ions are fixed in a lattice and vibrate about a mean position.
When an electric field is applied the free electrons can move under the influence of the electric field. It is these free electrons which result in copper being a good conductor of electricity (and heat). The positive ions are fixed into the lattice and so can only move their mean position very little.
If the final state is such that the net movement of the free electrons is zero (electrostatics) then the redistribution of charges throughout the metal is such that the electric field produces by the induced charges as a result of the movement of the free electrons is equal and opposite to the externally applied electric field and so the net field in the conductor is zero.
So when you see diagrams of conductor with positive and negative charges on them, the region labelled as having a negative charge is one where there is a net surplus of free electrons and the region and the region with positive charges is one which has a net deficit of free elctrons.