Question

The diagram shows a charge moving into an electric field.

Two horizontal parallel plates have equally spaced vectors going from the bottom plate to the top plate. A negatively charged sphere labeled Z in traveling horizontally in between the plates. A vector is pointing right. The top plate is labeled W. There is an X at the far end of the top plate and a Y at the far end of the bottom plate.
The charge will most likely leave the electric field near which letter?

W
X
Y
Z

Answer 1

Y

Reason: the electric field points upward, but the force on a negative charge is opposite the field (F = qE, q < 0), so the particle is deflected downward and will leave near the bottom plate (Y).