Question

Based on the diagram of the electric field lines around the two spherical charges, what are the signs of the left and right charge respectively?
Responses
A positive, positivepositive, positive
B positive, negativepositive, negative
C negative, positivenegative, positive
D negative, negative

Answer 1

To determine the signs of the charges based on the diagram of the electric field lines, we can use the following principles:

1. Electric field lines originate from positive charges and terminate on negative charges.
2. If the field lines are directed away from a charge, it is positive; if they are directed towards a charge, it is negative.

If the electric field lines in the diagram show:
- Lines emanating from the left charge and pointing towards the right charge, it indicates that the left charge is positive and the right charge is negative. This corresponds to option B: positive, negative.
- If instead, you observe lines pointing towards both charges, both would be negative, which corresponds to option D: negative, negative.
- If lines emanate from both charges, both would be positive, corresponding to option A: positive, positive.
- If the left charge has lines terminating on it (showing it attracts the field lines), it would be negative and if the right is positive, that corresponds to option C: negative, positive.

Without the actual diagram to analyze, I would recommend identifying the behavior of the field lines according to these rules to determine the charge signs accurately.