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lingling
Nov6-06, 07:19 AM
Can anyone explain why in the charge sharing processes, more charges are given to the larger conductors made of the same material?

andrevdh
Nov6-06, 01:15 PM
The process is similar to charging up a capacitor. Larger capacitors can store more charge for the same voltage than smaller capacitors. Energy is involved in pushing charge onto a conductor. In this process work is done which manifest as a raised potential difference (with respect to ground say) over the conductor. What happens therefore is that the charge will redistribute between the two conductors until they are both at the same potential. The conductor with the smaller surface area (or sharper curvature) will therefore take on less charge than the larger one to get to the same potential difference.