What Is a Positive Charge?
In electromagnetism, there are three types of charges: positive, neutral, and negative. A positive charge is any object that contains a greater number of positively charged particles than negative ones. In reality, this is often caused by a lack of electrons to match with positively charge protons. For example, an ion of an element that has lost one or more electrons will become positively charged as there are a greater number of positive protons within the nucleus than there are electrons surrounding it.
It is often important to know the electromagnetic charge of an object because this will affect its future behavior. Positive charges, for example, will be attracted to negative charges and repelled from other positive ones. For this reason, a positive electric charge will behave differently than a neutral or negative one.
The reason that atoms can become positively or negatively charged is due to the fact that they are made up of smaller constituent parts — protons, neutrons, and electrons. Protons and neutrons are held together by the strong nuclear force at the center of the atom, which means that the nucleus is positively charged. The overall charge of a neutral atom is balanced by the electrons that orbit the nucleus since electrons are negatively charged. In some cases, however, the atom may gain or lose an electron, which means it has a net charge. This is the underlying reason why everyday objects can have a positive charge.
A positive charge particle will be neither attracted to a neutral particle nor repelled from it. This does not mean that positively charged objects will not be attracted to neutral ones. There is a phenomenon known as electrostatic induction, which is commonly demonstrated when balloons stick to ceilings or walls. If an object has a positive charge and is then placed next to one that is neutral, the negative charges inside the neutral object will be attracted to the positive one. This means that in the area of the object nearest to the positive object there is a net negative charge, and therefore an attraction will occur between the two objects.
Positive charge has many useful applications. For example, charges that are attractive are used for spray painting cars. Inkjet printers also use positive and negative charges in order to attract ink to the correct areas of paper.
Written by Alex Paul
