Why Does a Charged Particle Inside a Neutral Shell Experience No Force?

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A charged particle inside a neutral shell experiences no electrostatic force from the shell due to the uniform distribution of charge on the shell's surface. This principle states that the shell's charge can be treated as concentrated at its center for external particles, while internal particles are unaffected. The confusion arises from visual representations, such as electric field lines, which may suggest forces acting on the particle. However, these lines do not indicate a force from the shell itself but rather represent the field created by the particle. Understanding that the charge on the inner surface of the shell is not uniformly distributed clarifies this concept.
eurekameh
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So "A shell of uniform charge attracts or repels a charged particle that is outside the shell
as if all the shell’s charge were concentrated at the center of the shell" and also, "If a charged particle is located inside a shell of uniform charge, there is no electrostatic force on the particle from the shell." However, I found this picture in the textbook: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/823/gha.png/
A negatively charged particle is located inside the electrically neutral spherical shell. However, I see these electric field lines acting on the particle, which leads me to believe that there is also an electrostatic force acting on it. This contradicts the second statement above, about a particle not experiencing any force from the shell if the particle is located in the shell. Can anyone explain this to me?
 
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Those electric field lines in the figure are from the charge itself, and NOT acting on the charge.

Zz.
 
eurekameh said:
and also, "If a charged particle is located inside a shell of uniform charge, there is no electrostatic force on the particle from the shell."
Note that the charge on the inner surface of the shell is not uniformly distributed.
 
Ooh. Gotcha, thanks.
 
So I know that electrons are fundamental, there's no 'material' that makes them up, it's like talking about a colour itself rather than a car or a flower. Now protons and neutrons and quarks and whatever other stuff is there fundamentally, I want someone to kind of teach me these, I have a lot of questions that books might not give the answer in the way I understand. Thanks
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