Practice question

**Electrostatic shielding** inside hollow conducting shell field zero when no charges inside, regardless of external field, because free charges redistribute on outer surface to cancel external field inside conductor, E=0 inside material in equilibrium, consequence of Gauss's law and conductor property. In electrostatic equilibrium, free charges in a conductor redistribute to cancel any internal electric field. If there were a field inside, it would exert a force on the free charges, causing them to move until the field becomes zero everywhere inside. This principle holds regardless of shape because conductors allow charge mobility, and equilibrium requires E = 0 inside, with all excess charge residing