Why do positive charges repel

See Figure 6. Positive charge can similarly be induced by rubbing. Methods other than rubbing can also separate charges. Batteries, for example, use combinations of substances that interact in such a way as to separate charges. Chemical interactions may transfer negative charge from one substance to the other, making one battery terminal negative and leaving the first one positive. Figure 6. When materials are rubbed together, charges can be separated, particularly if one material has a greater affinity for electrons than another.

Only a tiny fraction of the charges are involved, and only a few of them are shown here. No charge is actually created or destroyed when charges are separated as we have been discussing. Rather, existing charges are moved about. In fact, in all situations the total amount of charge is always constant. This universally obeyed law of nature is called the law of conservation of charge.

Sometimes, the created mass is charged, such as when an electron is created. Whenever a charged particle is created, another having an opposite charge is always created along with it, so that the total charge created is zero. For example, an antielectron would usually be created at the same time as an electron. The antielectron has a positive charge it is called a positron , and so the total charge created is zero.

See Figure 7. All particles have antimatter counterparts with opposite signs. When matter and antimatter counterparts are brought together, they completely annihilate one another. Since the two particles have equal and opposite charge, the total charge is zero before and after the annihilation; thus, total charge is conserved. Figure 7. Here the matter created is an electron—antielectron pair. The total charge before and after this event is zero.

Only a limited number of physical quantities are universally conserved. Charge is one—energy, momentum, and angular momentum are others. Because they are conserved, these physical quantities are used to explain more phenomena and form more connections than other, less basic quantities. We find that conserved quantities give us great insight into the rules followed by nature and hints to the organization of nature. Discoveries of conservation laws have led to further discoveries, such as the weak nuclear force and the quark substructure of protons and other particles.

The law of conservation of charge is absolute—it has never been observed to be violated. Charge, then, is a special physical quantity, joining a very short list of other quantities in nature that are always conserved. Other conserved quantities include energy, momentum, and angular momentum. Objects can be positively charged, negatively charged or neutral.

A substance that gains electrons becomes negatively charged, while a substance that loses electrons becomes positively charged. Atoms or molecules that become charged are called ions.

When a charged object comes near to another object the two objects will either attract or repel each other:. Then the question becomes why this mathematical model, and the answer is "because it describes the observations", circular. I am pointing out that "why" questions can not be answered with physics. Physics can be successfully modeled mathematically with postulates and using the model one can show how the behavior of positive and negative charges under all sorts of experimental conditions can be predicted accurately, but not "why" they exist.

The why gets the answer "because that is what we have observed nature to do". Well the mutual repulsion of like particles, such as electrons for example is commonly explained as being due to "exchange particles" that mediate the four standard forces of the standard model. For the Electro-magnetic force Coulomb between like charges electrons the exchange particle is the Photon.

Two electrons in the vicinity of each other "exchange" a photon with each other back and forth that results in the mutual repulsion.

Imagine two ice skaters facing each other on smooth ice. Suppose they toss a 12 bowling ball, back and forth to each other; well maybe a "medicine" ball would be safer. The result of "exchanging" the ball back and forth, is that the reaction from tossing the ball to the other, results in both skaters moving away from each other.

The farther apart they get, the more difficult it is for them to exchange the ball, and the repulsive force between them drops. Each of the four forces of nature has its exchange particle; the photon, being the one that mediates the EM force. I'll let the OP dig out what the other three are.

It's all about the energy, in the sense that everything is positive or negative energy. Opposite charges attract each other in order to complement the lack or surplus of energy. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Ask Question. Asked 8 years, 1 month ago.

Active 2 years, 4 months ago. Viewed k times. Improve this question. Volker Siegel 3, 1 1 gold badge 21 21 silver badges 55 55 bronze badges. Muhammad Umer Muhammad Umer 2, 6 6 gold badges 19 19 silver badges 22 22 bronze badges. You can find arbitrarily large sets of charges that are repulsive in all possible pairing, but you can not find a similar set of more than two charges that are attractive in all possible pairing. That implies that the sets of mutually repulsive charges are all the same, while mutually attractive charges are distinct.

Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. The two charges repel each other. If a positive charge and a negative charge interact, their forces act in the same direction, from the positive to the negative charge. As a result opposite charges attract each other:. The electric field and resulting forces produced by two electrical charges of opposite polarity.