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Question

If negative terminal of battery has excess of electrons ie negatively charged then why it doesn't attract neutral bodies

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Solution

Technically, you can neutralize the electrostatic potential of the entire battery this way. However, batteries do not primarily work by electrostatics. They work by creating a potential difference between the two terminals which encourages electrons to flow out of one (the negative side) and into the other (the positive side). This encouragement is provided via chemical reactions.

If you were to touch the negative terminal, you would move enough electrons into or out of the battery to ensure that the negative terminal is "neutral" with respect to the ground. At this point, there is still the chemical reactions going on which ensure the positive terminal is at a small poitive voltage (i.e. 12V for a car battery). this potential will not go away simply because you "grounded" the negative terminal because there's no electrons flowing in a loop from negative to positive outside of the battery, and positive to negative within the battery.

There are some corner cases where a reasonably large number of electrons might flow out of the battery into the ground. However, that number pales in comparason to the number of electrons that the battery is ready to cycle through an electrical connection between positive and negative terminals.


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