As you know from the school physics course, in the process of electrification of bodies the law of conservation of electric charges is fulfilled. At first glance, it may seem that knowledge of this fact is too abstract to be confronted with in everyday life. Let’s talk today about whether this is actually so and where one can meet the law of conservation of electric charge.
The current theories about the structure of the microworld claim that the charge carrier - an electron, is one of the most stable particles. Energy cannot disappear: in the whole Universe, only its transformation takes place. Thus, the law of conservation of electric charge is satisfied. Suppose that an electron in some conditions can be divided into others, its constituent particles (for example, a photon and an elusive neutrino), with the corresponding total charge. However, until now, official science has denied this possibility, since practical experiments (and they were carried out repeatedly) were unsuccessful. No wonder they say that the electron is indivisible, it is inexhaustible ... The theoretical lifetime of this particle is at least 10 to the power of 22.
It's no secret that the total charge of an atom is zero. This is because the negative potential of all electrons is compensated by the positive charge of protons in the nucleus. Mutual neutralization is performed, so the atom as a whole is electrically neutral. Of course, if additional energy is given to him (for example, to heat the material to high temperatures or to be affected by an alternating magnetic field), then the electrons in the outer orbits (valence) can leave their “rightful places”. In this case, an ion of matter and a free electron are obtained. But, as a rule, the energy acquired by a particle is emitted in the form of quanta and the stable structure of the atom is restored. A special case is compounds of elements, when some particles are common to two (or more) atoms. The conservation law is also fully implemented.
However, we will return from the microworld to a more practical life. The law of conservation of electric charge is actively used in the calculations of electrical engineering. For example, it is enough to recall the first rule of Kirchhoff. In fact, it confirms the law of conservation of electric charge. For example, in three-phase alternating current circuits , a method of connecting conductors to a star is often used. In this case, three phase wires are connected in a node. It would seem that a short circuit is inevitable with increasing current and burning out of the conductive material. In reality, the following happens: in each such node, the sum of the currents is zero. In the calculations (conditionality), the incoming currents are considered positive, and the outgoing currents are considered negative. In other words: I1 + I2 + I3 = 0, or, which is also true, I2 = I1-I3 and so on. In simple terms, the incoming charge cannot exceed the sum of the outgoing from the node. If the charge conservation law did not work with a similar connection of conductors, then the accumulation of charged particles in the site would be fixed, but this does not happen.
Electrical engineering and atoms are far from the only areas where the law of conservation of charge applies. Biology and botany are also not forgotten. With the famous process of photosynthesis (the creation of organic substances in chlorophyll grains under the influence of sunlight) at the moment of absorption of a quantum of light, one electron leaves the fabric structure. However, since the chlorophyll molecule in this case acquires a positive charge, the “vacant seat” is soon filled with one of the free particles. In fact, it is thanks to the law of conservation of charge that the universe can exist in the form that we are all used to.