Question

An eccentric inventor attempts to levitate by first placing a large negative charge on himself and then putting a large positive charge on the ceiling of his workshop. Instead, while attempting to place a large negative charge on himself, his clothes fly off. Explain.

Short answer

Because of the positive charges on clothes and the negative charge, there is a force of attraction and the negative charge attracts the positively charged clothes. This, leads to the clothes flying off.

Step-by-step solution

Electrostatic force

Coulomb stated that when two-point charges are separated by some distance, then they experience force and this force is known as electrostatic force. The nature of force depends on the nature of charges.

Clothes fly off

When the eccentric inventor places a large negative charge on himself, due to induction, the positive charges get accumulated on the clothes.

Because of a large negative charge on him, there is force of attraction between his clothes and the charge over him.. Hence, the clothes fly off from the body of the inventor.