Question

When a body is charged, then its mass will:
1. Increase
2. Decrease
3. May increase or decrease
4. Neither increase nor decrease

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 3 : May increase or decrease

CONCEPT:

Electric Charge

• It is defined as the intrinsic property of certain fundamental particles like electrons, proton, etc, due to which they produce electric and magnetic effects.
• Types of electric charge
  1. ​Positive charge: A body having a deficiency of electrons.
  2. ​Negative charge: A body having an excess of electrons.
• Properties of electric charge
  • Like charges repel and unlike charges attract each other.
  • A charge is a scalar quantity.
  • If a system contains a number of point charges, then the total charge of the system is obtained simply by adding all the charges algebraically.
  • A charge is always quantized.
  • A charge will always remain conserved.
  • A charge is always associated with mass.
  • The unit of charge is the coulomb.

⇒ 1 coulomb = charge on 625 × 1016 electrons

EXPLANATION:

• ​Positive charge: A body having a deficiency of electrons.
• Negative charge: A body having an excess of electrons.
• A body can be positively charged by removing electrons and negatively charged by adding electrons.
• We know that electrons have some mass.
• So when we add some electrons to the body, it will get negatively charged and its mass will increase.
• Similarly, when we extract some electrons from the body, it will get positively charged and its mass will decrease.
• So when a body is charged, its mass may increase or decrease. Hence, option 1 is correct.