A positively charged body is kept near an uncharged body. Which of the following is true?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → The two bodies will attract each other.
Option (1) The two bodies will repel each other. — Incorrect. Repulsion needs like charges on the two bodies, but the uncharged body has no net charge of its own.
Option (2) The two bodies will attract each other. — Correct. The field of the positive body polarises the uncharged body. Its negative charge shifts towards the near side, and the far side is left positive.
The near side, with unlike charge, is attracted. The far side, with like charge, is repelled.
The attracted charge is closer, so by Coulomb’s law its force is larger, and the net force is attraction.
Option (3) The bodies will not exert any electrostatic force on each other. — Incorrect. The second body has zero net charge. But the charges separated in it are at different distances from the charged body, so the forces on its two sides do not balance.
Option (4) The behaviour of the bodies cannot be determined. — Incorrect. The near side always gets the unlike charge, whatever the details. So the net force is always attraction.
NCERT (2026-27):
Dipole in a Uniform External Field – “… A comb run through dry hair attracts pieces of paper. The comb, as we know, acquires charge through friction. But the paper is not charged. What then explains the attractive force? Taking the clue from the preceding discussion, the charged comb ‘polarises’ the piece of paper, i.e., induces a net dipole moment in the direction of field. …”