Benjamin Franklin electrified a silver pint can that set upon an insulated stand

Question

Benjamin Franklin electrified a silver pint can that set upon an insulated stand. He then lowered a cork hall suspended by a silk thread into the can without touching the sides of the can and found that it was not attracted to the sides like it would have been if the cork ball was placed near the outside of the can. He allowed the cork bull to touch the bottom of the can and then drew it back out and found that it was not electrified. Ben Franklin did not know the reason why the cork ball did not take on any charge. Explain to Ben why it could not take on any charge.

Explanation / Answer

Okay. To answer this question we must know "What is Faraday cage ". Faraday cage represents any surface which when charged, accumulates the charge only on the outer surface. Now as per the question, Benjamin Franklin lowered the cork ball into the can which is not at all charged. On the contary, the ball was charged when placed near the out side of can. It has been proved that Any metallic surface, when charged, has charge accumulated only on the exterior surface. No charge will be present inside the surface.

To understand this in much easier and interesting way, Let's take an example of an aircraft struck by lighting. In this case, the body of the aircraft acts as a faraday cage which disperses the charge to the outer body of aircraft. This is the reason when aircraft is struck by lightning, passengers don't experience any shock because no charge can enter the inside of aircraft.

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