How does this configuration not create E field inside the conductor?

[harmyder]

Suppose an uncharged hollow metallic sphere has a non-centered charge inside. In this case, the charge distribution and field lines are like this

Wouldn't such an uneven charge distribution on the inside and outside of the conductor create a field inside the conductor?

 

[Ibix]

Charges can move inside the conductor, and if there is an E field inside it they will move until there isn't one. Once they've stopped moving you will find that the charge distribution generates (inside the conductor) the exact opposite of the field from any external sources, cancelling it out. So yes, the charge distribution generates a field inside the conductor, one which exactly cancels the external field.

 

[harmyder]

What bothers me is that the field lines created by charge distributions on the metal surfaces are so unlike those I expect from the point charge. Yeah, maybe it is just hard to visualize how they cancel out each other.

 

[Ibix]

What bothers me is that the field lines created by charge distributions on the metal surfaces are so unlike those I expect from the point charge.

The field lines drawn on the diagram are the lines of the total field, point charge plus conductor charges. Field lines are integral curves of the field, so they don't just add up the way the fields do and it's quite hard to see from the diagram what the separate fields would look like.

It's also worth noting that the curved lines inside the hollow don't look wildly different from the field lines of two nearby charges (which is roughly what they should look like).

Yeah, maybe it is just hard to visualize how they cancel out each other.

I don't think this diagram is the best tool for visualising this. What you want is a diagram filled with a grid of little arrows, with each one pointing in the direction the E field points at its location. Then you can draw two separate diagrams, one for the E field of the charge and one for the E field of the conductor charges. The arrows in a pair of such diagrams do add by vector addition.