ibps-so 2024 · Question 2 of 209

How do electrons create a pathway for themselves in thin air without a physical wire? Read the following passage and answer the following questions. A spark is essentially an electric charge flying in the air between two points, one of which has a large quantity of surplus electrons while the other has too few. This difference in quantities of electrons can happen due to many reasons. Sometimes people have engineered it this way using chemicals: the simplest example is the battery that we use in everything from remote-controls to electric vehicles. A point with a large number of surplus electrons is called the negative terminal (since electrons are negatively charged) and a point that is deficient of electrons is the positive terminal. This is why you see ‘+’ and ‘-’ signs marked on every battery. In most situations – and unlike some people – electrons are extremely equitable in nature and dislike this difference in their quantities. So, given an opportunity, they will travel from a place where they are more in number to a place where they are fewer in number. This is why current flows when we attach a wire between the two ends of a battery, and in the process we make our fans move, or bulbs light up, etc. However, if we don’t attach a wire and the electrons still want to move, what will they do? If the gap between the surplus and the deficiency of electrons becomes too extreme, at some point, these electrons will lose all patience and decide to fly through the air, disrupting everything in between. This is not very dissimilar to human society. Sometimes, you might notice that something upsets people slowly over time, and then suddenly, there is a surprisingly large bit of unrest. To be able to break out like this, electrons first need to break up air molecules mid-air, creating ions (charged atoms). In addition, many electrons inside the atoms are also pulled out, creating free electrons in the air. All this creates a region through which electrons can easily move – as if they have made a wire for themselves in thin air! And when they travel on this path, we see it as a spark. 1 www.careerpower.in | Clouds are charged objects. When they move over large distances and collide with other clouds, they get more and more charged. At some point, this charge becomes too much for the clouds to hold, and breaks out as the lightning that we see (followed by the thunder that we hear).

1. AThey generate a magnetic field that guides their movement
2. BThey create a temporary conductive path by breaking up air molecules and forming ionsCorrect
3. CThey undergo a transformation into positively charged particles and repel each other
4. DThey induce a flow of electrons in nearby objects, connecting the two points
5. EThey attract additional electrons from the surroundings to create a conducting channel