Question

There are two types of electric charges: positive charges and negative charges. The property which differentiates the two types of charges is:
A. field of charge
B. amount of charge
C. strength of the charge
D. polarity of the charge

Answer 1

Hint: The positive and negative charges show the property of attraction and repulsion depending on the type of charge on a particle. The same type of charges repels each other while the opposite types of charges attract each other.

Complete step-by-step solution:
The electric charge of a material or particle can be defined as a fundamental property of that material or particle by virtue of which it experiences a certain force when it is placed in an electromagnetic field.
There exist two types of charges in nature namely the positive charge and the negative charge. We can differentiate between these charges based on the fact that how they interact with each other when brought in close vicinity of each other. Like charges tend to repel each other while the opposite charges tend to attract each other. Therefore, on the basis of the polarity of the charge, we can classify positive and negative charges.
Hence, the charges can be differentiated on the basis of their polarity. So, the correct answer is option D.

Additional information:
Pith ball electroscope is a device, which was used to understand these charges when they were first discovered. In this electroscope, we have a pith ball which is negatively charged. It is suspended freely and then we bring other charged bodies in the close vicinity of the negatively charged pith ball. It is observed that certain charges attracted the bath while others repelled the ball.
Now if the pith ball moves towards the rod that means that the two charges are attracting each other and we know that opposite charges attract each other. Since the pith ball is negatively charged, it means that the rod is positively charged.

Note: The strength of a charge depends on the amount of electric field produced by a charge. The electric field produced by positive and negative charges is such that the electric field starts from a positive charge and ends at a negative charge.