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How does a body acquire charge or get charged up? I am not talking about the method through which it gets charged up, but does every atom contain things that make a body charge up? If we talked about the process by which a body gets charge, how does it happen?

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  • $\begingroup$ possible duplicate of What is charge actually? How to define it? $\endgroup$
    – Danu
    Commented May 29, 2014 at 16:34
  • $\begingroup$ @Danu My question is how a body acquires charge ? $\endgroup$ Commented May 29, 2014 at 16:42
  • $\begingroup$ It is quite unclear what 'acquires' means to you. $\endgroup$
    – Danu
    Commented May 29, 2014 at 16:51
  • $\begingroup$ Do you mean a fundamental particle or large bodies, like a capacitor? $\endgroup$
    – jinawee
    Commented May 29, 2014 at 18:30

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It isn't clear what you mean by acquire but, since your title contains "intrinsic property", I'll assume you mean to ask how does, e.g., an electron 'acquire' its charge?

An electron can neither loose nor acquire electric charge since part of what makes an electron an electron is a certain amount of electric charge.

In the Standard Model, an electron can 'emit' a $W^-$ boson and become an electron neutrino which, as you may know, is electrically neutral.

Similarly, an electron neutrino can 'absorb' a $W^-$ boson and become an electron.

However, one should not think of this as, in the first case, an electron 'losing' charge or, in the second case, the neutrino 'acquiring' charge.

In the quantum field context, it's more of the case that, for example, the electron is destroyed and the neutrino and $W^-$ are created in the same event.

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