TITLE: What would happen if a body possessing a charge $(-1) \text { e}$ is brought into contact with an electrically neutral object?
QUESTION [0 upvotes]: Let's say that a body $A$ possesses a charge of $-1 \text{ e}$ (electron) and another body $B$ is electrically neutral (has a charge of $0 \text{ e}$). Now, if we bring any two objects in contact, from an electricity point of view, there would be an exchange of electrons so that both the objects posses a charge of the same magnitude after the contact. If one of the objects has a charge of $x \text{ units}$ and another one has a charge of $y \text { units}$, the magnitude of charge possessed by each one of them post-contact will be $\dfrac{x+y}{2} \text { units}$.In the case in my question, $x$ is $-1 \text{ e}$ and $y$ is $0 \text{ e}$, so $\dfrac{x+y}{2}$ is equal to $\dfrac{-1}{\text{ }2} \text{ e}$, which is not possible as the smallest magnitude of charge that exists independently is $\pm 1 \text{ e}$, the magnitude of charge possessed by a single electron or proton...
And looking from a general point of view too, $A$ has one electron more than it has protons, hence the charge of $-1 \text{ e}$, and $B$ is electrically neutral, so the minimum amount of charge that can be transferred from $A$ to $B$ will be $1  \text{ e}$, which will cause $B$ to possess a charge of $-1 \text{ e}$ and $A$ to be electrically neutral, which just reverses the scenario.
So, what would happen in this case? Would that one electron not flow? Or would it keep flowing infinitely? Or something else?
Thanks!

REPLY [0 votes]: Well the thing is the whole transfer scenario depends on electron affinity values of the materials A and B. Just like SchrodingersCat elaborated. Different materials will have different 'attractions' for electron. In this case, if B has a greater electron affinity than A, the transfer is plausible of course. So now B will become a 1- ion while A will become neutral molecule minimizing the electrical potential energy of the configuration. But all the aforementioned depends on what A is - the previous description holds only for matter made up of atoms or molecules. When we talk about charges transferring we always have a charge carrier that carries the charge from atom/molecule to another. Usually the charge carrier is just the electron. So when we talk about A being neutral here, we mean A possesses 0 net charge which is, of course, completely plausible. However, if A is an electron, A itself will enter B's electron configuration giving it a charge of -1 but you have to understand A does NOT lose its charge - it is the charge carrier and is the particle that gives B the negative charge.
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