Question

Figure showed how an electroscope becomes negatively charged. The leaves will also repel each other if you touch the electroscope with a positively charged glass rod. Use a series of charge diagrams to explain what happens and why the leaves repel each other.

Short answer

The negative charge transfer from the sphere to the rod and the electroscope become positively charge and the leaves repels each other.

Step-by-step solution

Positively charged rod.

The electroscope's metal sphere contains free electrons that can travel about freely.

Because the plastic rod is positively charged, electrons from the metal sphere are transferred to it. The metal sphere gets positively charged in this situation. As a result, the following are the steps involved in the transfer:

($1$) The rod is initially positively charged, while the electroscope leaves are neutral.

Reaction in a metal sphere.

($2$) The metal sphere's negative charges are transferred to the plastic rod, and the metal sphere becomes positively charged.

($3$) Because the metal sphere is a conductor, the charge travels swiftly throughout the electroscope.

($4$) The two leaves have the same charges, and because like charges resist each other, the positive charges on the leaves repel each other, causing the leaves to be far apart.

Explanation by a diagram.