Electrostatic induction

Electrostatic induction, also known as "electrostatic influence" or simply "influence" in Europe and Latin America, is a redistribution of electric charge in an object that is caused by the influence of nearby charges.[1] In the presence of a charged body, an insulated conductor develops a positive charge on one end and a negative charge on the other end.[1] Induction was discovered by British scientist John Canton in 1753 and Swedish professor Johan Carl Wilcke in 1762.[2] Electrostatic generators, such as the Wimshurst machine, the Van de Graaff generator and the electrophorus, use this principle. See also Stephen Gray in this context. Due to induction, the electrostatic potential (voltage) is constant at any point throughout a conductor.[3] Electrostatic induction is also responsible for the attraction of light nonconductive objects, such as balloons, paper or styrofoam scraps, to static electric charges. Electrostatic induction laws apply in dynamic situations as far as the quasistatic approximation is valid.

  1. ^ a b "Electrostatic induction". Britannica.com Online. Britannica.com Inc. 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-25.
  2. ^ Fleming, John Ambrose (1911). "Electricity" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 9 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 179–193, see page 181, second para, three lines from end. ... the Swede, Johann Karl Wilcke (1732–1796), then resident in Germany, who in 1762 published an account of experiments in which....
  3. ^ Purcell, Edward M.; David J. Morin (2013). Electricity and Magnetism. Cambridge Univ. Press. pp. 127–128. ISBN 978-1107014022.