Thursday, August 13, 2015

newtonian gravity - The effect of gravitational & Coulomb forces on free electrons in a conductor





  1. In a metal, why don’t the free electrons fall to the bottom of the metal due to gravity?




  2. Also, charges in a conductor are supposed to reside on the surface so why don’t the free electrons all go to the surface?




Regarding the first question, my hunch is that it is due to the electric force which is greater than the gravitational force and electric force act along the length of the conductor.


I don't have any intuition for the second.




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