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A friend of mine asked me a question.

Suppose there are two metal rods which are placed in front of a uniformly charged non-conducting plane one after other with their length perpendicular to the plane.

I know that the rods will get attracted towards each other but what would be nature of force that will work between the rod and the plane.

The answer is attraction but I don't know why it has to be that way.

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  • $\begingroup$ Will the rods attract each other? I'd have guessed the sheet will polarise them and turn them into dipoles. Two parallel dipoles repel not attract. $\endgroup$
    – John Rennie
    Commented May 7, 2015 at 6:56
  • $\begingroup$ @JohnRennie I know that the rods will attract but I am asking why would there be attraction between the rod and plane. $\endgroup$
    – The Imp
    Commented May 7, 2015 at 7:47
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    $\begingroup$ Any uncharged object will be attracted to a charged plane because the plane polarises it. See for example this question. However I still think the rods will repel each other not attract. $\endgroup$
    – John Rennie
    Commented May 7, 2015 at 8:12

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The rods will get attracted towards the plane due to polarisation of the rods because of the plane.the rodsbwill surely not attract each other.They will repell each other as the induced charges have the same sign(+ or-).

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