Given three identical conducting spheres except they are colored red, blue and g

Question

Given three identical conducting spheres except they are colored red, blue and green, and they each may have a different net charge (+, - or zero). When the red and blue spheres are brought close together but are not allowed to touch, they attract. When the red and green spheres are brought close together but are not allowed to touch, they attract. When the blue and green spheres are brought close together but are not allowed to touch, they attract. But when the red and green spheres are brought into contact and then moved apart, none of the spheres attract or repel any of the others. What can you say about the orignial charges on each of the spheres?

Explanation / Answer

Hello thank you for your question.

Now we know that opposite charges attract each other.

But there is the phenomenon of inducted charged, on which when a charged body gets close to a conductive body but neutral in charge, the neutral body gets the opposite charge of the charged body.

Now we can assume that the red and green have different sign charges, because when they touch the charges "disappear".

They actually reach a neutral state, as one ball passes negative charge to the positively charged ball (only electrons move) until they reach equilibrium in charges.

Then the blue ball, since it was attracted by both, we can say it had neutral charge all along, and when another ball was brought close to it, the blue ball experimented induction from that ball.

Good luck!

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