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Practice question

Question

Why does the electric field inside a conductor vanish in electrostatic equilibrium, even if the conductor is irregularly shaped?

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Explanation

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 on the surface, adjusting to the geometry.

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