# Several questions on negative and positive charges **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 6, 2022, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/several-questions-on-negative-and-positive-charges/962402 "2022-04-06T17:22:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/several-questions-on-negative-and-positive-charges/962402/1 "2022-04-06T17:22:58Z")
Would it be possible to take 2# of a fine powder and put positive charges on one pound and negative charges on the other pound? If this was done would they cancel each other out when they made contact with one another? Could the strength of the charge be regulated so that they would have to actually touch or be very close to cancel each other out? Would there be a way to remove the neutral particles once they became discharged? ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/several-questions-on-negative-and-positive-charges/962402/2 "2022-04-06T17:38:32Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > Would it be possible to take 2# of a fine powder and put positive charges on one pound and negative charges on the other pound? Depends on the material, but yes. Some take a positive charge better, some take a negative charge better, and some don’t really _want_ to take a charge, but if you cared enough, you could get it done. > [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > If this was done would they cancel each other out when they made contact with one another? Once again, it depends on the conductivity of the material as to how quickly or completely the charges cancel, but yes, for the most part. > [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > Could the strength of the charge be regulated so that they would have to actually touch or be very close to cancel each other out? They would have to touch in some way to cancel out. If the charge is great enough, and they are close enough, then they may touch through plasma as the air breaks down and creates an arc. > [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > Would there be a way to remove the neutral particles once they became discharged? That’s a pretty packed question, so let me break it down a bit. If you mean magnetically or electrostatically, once again, depends on the material. If it’s iron filings, then they will be attracted to a magnet. If it’s graphite, it’s going to have a much weaker attraction. Is there a real world connection to these questions, may be able to give better answers with some context. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/several-questions-on-negative-and-positive-charges/962402/3 "2022-04-06T18:38:57Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Is there a real world connection to these questions, may be able to give better answers with some context. I was trying to see if powder could be used to illustrate how matter and antimatter annihilated one another and then see how much was left over at the end of a specified period in some type of enclosed set up that would be an entirely new question on its own. Thinking about a cyclone type fan placed in the middle of a 20 ft sphere of some kind, all hypothetical. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/several-questions-on-negative-and-positive-charges/962402/4 "2022-04-07T01:40:02Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > I was trying to see if powder could be used to illustrate how matter and antimatter annihilated one another and then see how much was left over at the end of a specified period in some type of enclosed set up that would be an entirely new question on its own. Thinking about a cyclone type fan placed in the middle of a 20 ft sphere of some kind, all hypothetical. Charge cancelling out is fundamentally different from matter-antimatter annihilation. That doesn’t mean you couldn’t illustrate some aspect of one with the other, but I’m struggling to think of such an aspect. Most likely one set of dust would have an excess of electron and the other would have a deficit. When they were close enough the electrons would travel across. There would be some small release of energy. If you had dust and anti-dust on the other hand, a particle of dust meeting a particle of anti-dust would partially turn into energy, blowing the particles apart.