Free electrons in an accelerated metal?

[M de L]

TL;DR

What happens to free electrons in an accelerated metal?

I take a conductor and expose one side to a nearby region of negative charge. The metal's free electrons are repelled, and many collect at the opposite side to the charged region. High School stuff.

Okay, so now I accelerate the metal in one direction. What happens to the free electrons...do they slosh up against the side of the metal, the same way water does in an accelerated bottle?

 

[Baluncore]

Welcome to PF.
The amount of 'slosh' in the free electrons will be determined by the mass of an electron multiplied by the acceleration, which is a force; balanced by the repulsive forces between the distributed free electrons.

 

[M de L]

...so I drop a cube of metal, and for the brief moment when it strikes the ground, there is an electrical potential measurable between the top and bottom sides? Prolly not a large one, I imagine?

 

[Lord Jestocost]

It's called the Stewart-Tolman effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart–Tolman_effect

 

[Baluncore]

When you hammer in a nail, free electrons move towards the point of impact where the hammer hits the nail.

 

[Vanadium 50]

...so I drop a cube of metal, and for the brief moment when it strikes the ground, there is an electrical potential measurable between the top and bottom sides?

No, because the electrons and ions accelerate together. Neither has to pull or push the other.

 

[M de L]

Okay, so I conduct away all the free electrons in a cube of metal, by hammering it against an earth. My conductor is now an insulator. What happens then?

 

[Baluncore]

No, because the electrons and ions accelerate together. Neither has to pull or push the other.

That is true during the fall, but on impact the metal stops due to bond forces, while the free electrons take slightly longer to reduce their momentum, so they produce a small voltage pulse, negative at the bottom, positive at the top.

 

[paradisePhysicist]

Summary:: What happens to free electrons in an accelerated metal?

I take a conductor and expose one side to a nearby region of negative charge. The metal's free electrons are repelled, and many collect at the opposite side to the charged region. High School stuff.

Okay, so now I accelerate the metal in one direction. What happens to the free electrons...do they slosh up against the side of the metal, the same way water does in an accelerated bottle?

What happens to the electrons that are in orbit, does the orbit shift and become closer to the front of the accelerated object?

 

[berkeman]

What happens to the electrons that are in orbit, does the orbit shift and become closer to the front of the accelerated object?

What orbit? Low Earth orbit?

 

[paradisePhysicist]

What orbit? Low Earth orbit?

I mean the electrons in the orbital, the electron shell.

 

[tech99]

It's called the Stewart-Tolman effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart–Tolman_effect

Thank you for a most interesting paper. I noticed that the ballistic galvanometer used could detect a charge in the order of 10^-8 Coulombs, an extraordinary feat.