Does Gauss's Law Hold for a Charge Inside a Hollow Conductor?

[ice109]

i don't understand this. if i have a charge inside a hollow conductor of say +Q and a charge of -Q on the conductor it doesn't matter how close the interior charge is to the wall of the conductor ( but not touching ) the field at all points on the surface of the conductor will be zero? doesn't make sense to me. I'm imagining that if i put the +Q charge close to the interior wall of the conductor there will be a build up of negative charge next to it on the interior wall inside the conductor. This will in effect draw positive charge to that clump of negative charge on the exterior wall of the inside of the conductor and cause a stronger e field there? But ofcourse gauss's law says that the e field will be zero every where on the outside?

 

[ice109]

why was this moved? it's not homework help?

 

[chemhelper]

Let's use an exaggerated example. Presuming that a stronger negative e- field is forced on the interior wall like you said. If you drew a gaussian sphere around the hollow sphere, which way would this particular electric field point? If you think about it, if a negative charge were to be forced at that particular point, then directly opposite it across the sphere there would be an induced positive charge (since electrons don't come from just anywhere). Would that e field point into or out of the gaussian sphere? Compare these two fields and see the effect.