Grounded conductor within a charged shell

Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
2 replies · 4K views
anirudh30
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
In a question there are two conducting shells of radii a and b (a<b),the outer shell is given a charge Q . And the inner shell is grounded then the potential of that shell was equated to zero and its charge was assumed q.
And it resulted in an equation
KQ/b + Kq/a = 0 this gave q = -(a/b)Q
But when a conductor is grounded then the conductor can be taken as ground itself and then it will be equivalent of saying that we charged the ground with -(a/b)Q charge as the inner shell has this much charge.?
Please help me clear it.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Ground is a large resivor of charges that can be moved where ever needed. The rest of the ground has a charge of (a/b)Q as the opposite is now in that little ball.