Question

A plastic rod is charged to -12 nC by rubbing.

a. Have electrons been added to the rod or protons removed?

b. How many electrons have been added or protons removed?

Short answer

a. The electrons have been added to the rod.

b.$7.5\times {10}^{10}electrons$have been added.

Step-by-step solution

Content Introduction

According to the principle of quantization Any body's charge is an integral multiple of the charge on the integral. Furthermore, when electrons are taken from a body, the body's negative charge is also lost. A body becomes positively charged as a result of this.

Explanation (Part a)

The plastic rod is neutral, meaning it doesn't have any free electrons to go around. Rubbing charges the plastic rod by $-12nC$, causing it to become negatively charged. The electrons are added to the plastic rod, and this is the only way to make the plastic rod negatively charged where protons could not be removed.

Explanation (Part b)

We are given,

$Q$is the charge and is equal to number of carriers $N$times the charge of the carrier, which is $-e$for electrons and $+e$for protons.

where, $e=1.6\times {10}^{-19}C$, $Q=-12nC$

The equation so formed is

$$\begin{gathered} N=\frac{Q}{e} \\ N=\frac{-12\times {10}^{-9}C}{-1.6\times {10}^{19}C} \\ N=7.5\times {10}^{10}C \end{gathered}$$