Why are copper metal wires used to conduct electricity?
Excellent answers, all. Really, on an engineering basis, aluminum and copper are the big competitors. Inside the house, copper is very much preferred. It is a better conductor and less subject to corrosion, oxidation and deterioration of properties when exposed to higher temperatures. It is about four times the cost of aluminum by weight, but for the limited amount of wiring inside of a house or small appliance, this is acceptable. For cross-country transmission of power, however, aluminum is much less dense than copper. Hence, even though one must use more volume of aluminum to get the same conductivity, the weight of the cables is much less. Also, the cost of stringing all of the over-land transmission systems with copper would be staggering. (Copper is up quite a bit these days... spot price has been well over $3/lb for a week or two. Aluminum usually runs $0.90 to $1.00 / lb.)For sheer conductivity, however, silver is the king! That is why the electronics industry loves it. Often the critical factor affecting function is not determined by the long range over which one is transmitting an electric signal, but rather by the speed and quality of the connecting points. Hence, a tiny dab of silver (or gold) at those points can be extremely effective. Silver actually has conductivity better than gold, but gold is totally resistant to oxidation. Something even silver and copper cannot claim.
Which metal is the poorest conductor of heat and electricity?
Since good electrical conductivity is what metals are known for, we’re looking for the least metallic element that could still be called a metal. The boundary between metals and metalloids is not well defined and varies depending on who you ask.Of the pure element metals I’d pick manganese (details below).If you include alloys the titanium alloys seem poor in both thermal and electrical conductivity (ec) in the chart below - but this is just the engineering alloys (it leaves out silver, gold, mercury etc).Some of the metallic elements near the metalloids are poor, eg.Bismuth ( 8 W/(m K) thermal, 770,000 S/m electrical) (Siemens/meter = 1/Ohm meter).Manganese at 7.81 W/(m K) has the lowest thermal conductivity of any pure metal, and an ec of 694,000 S/m.Both Bi & Mn are in the lower region of the circle marked for titanium alloys.( Titanium itself has tc= 21.9 W/(m·K), ec= 2.38×10^6 S/m way to the upper right of the circle marked for its alloys)Nichrome alloy is a poor electrical conductor in the same region.NB. Tungsten is not as bad as some other answers imply.(Pure germanium, usually considered a metalloid, has an ec of only 2.17 S/m - far off the left side of the above chart)Plutonium and Mercury have poorer thermal conductivity than Bismuth.[1]Footnotes[1] Tom Chandler's answer to Which metal is a poor conductor of heat?
Classify the following materials as conductors or insulators:?
thermal, or electrical conductors? ======================================... insulators wood Plastic paper clips glass air paper plastic ====================================== conductors metal paper clip steel nail aluminum can ======================================... http://physics.info/conduction/ pure water is not a good electrical conductor, and quite a poor thermal conductor see: http://physics.info/conduction/ tap water is a good electrical conductor
What are some of the strongest conductors of electricity? Why?
Electrical conductivity is pretty well understood and measured in standard practice. Every conductor of electricity exhibits some resistance to that electricity and varying levels of magnetic reaction. Heat can come into play as well. But generally the main conductivity of standard metals goes bronze, iron, brass, aluminum, gold, copper, silver. As you get more efficient you need less of a given material to conduct the same amount of energy over a given distance. Silver is an especially good conductor because of the way the metals grains line up inside the material itself.Superconductivity - is a special state of matter, where elements are cooled to extremely low temperatures at which point they undergo a state change and their electrical resistance goes to zero. Until fairly recently this was done very close to absolute zero, or 0 degrees Kelvin - by cooling elements with liquid helium. (A very complicated thing itself) These are called low temperature superconductors.A new class called high temperature superconductors is now found to reach this status above 200K, which allows them to be cooled with liquid hydrogen, which has a boiling temperature of 77K. Hydrogen sulfide was found to reach superconductivty at 203K or -70C while under extremely high pressure in a lab, the highest temperature superconductors known to date.Superconductovity is not really used for electricity though. It’s primary use to date is in magnetic applications, like maglev trains, Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine’s (MRI scanners), and particle accelerators - where they are used to detect the weakest magnetic forces arising from a beam collision.
What metals are the most effective conductors of heat and electricity?
Hari om, you are asking a question as to : “ What metals are the most effective conductors of heat and electricity? “. Hari om.ANSWER :THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY :Thermal conductivity measures the ability of a metal to conduct heat.This property varies across different types of metal and is important to consider in applications where high operating temperatures are common.In pure metals, thermal conductivity stays roughly the same with increases in temperature.However in alloys the thermal conductivity increases with temperature.Which Metals Conduct Heat The Best?Common metals ranked by thermal conductivity :Rank ; Metal ; Thermal Conductivity [BTU/(hr·ft⋅°F)]1 ; Copper ; 2232 ; Aluminum ; 1183 ; Brass ; 644 : Steel ; 175 ; Bronze ; 15As can be seen, out of the more common metals, copper and aluminum have the highest thermal conductivity while steel and bronze have the lowest.Silver is the most effective conductorof heat and electricity.Next comes Copper, and Aluminum if we take the cost also into consideration.ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY :However, electrical conductivity depends on purity & other geometric factors also.This list of electric conductivity includes alloys as well as pure elements.Because the size and shape of a substance affect its conductivity, the list assumes all samples are the same size. In order of most conductive to least conductive , the following are the metals and alloys :SilverCopperGoldAluminumZincNickelBrassBronzeIronPlatinumCarbon SteelLeadStainless SteelBrowse through the following links for further details regarding the answers to your questions on thermal & electrical conductivity :Which Metals Conduct Heat Best? | Metal Supermarkets - Steel, Aluminum, Stainless, Hot-Rolled, Cold-Rolled, Alloy, Carbon, Galvanized, Brass, Bronze, CopperWhich Element Is the Best Conductor of Electricity?Hari om. Hari om.
Which metals are the best conductors of electricity?
Above table shows the decreasing order of electrical conductivity and increasing order of electrical resistivity of some metals.Lower the electrical resistance of the metal better is the conductivity of the metal. So silver is the best conductor of electricity in the pure metals category.
Which metals are good conductors of heat?
questions already answered well… the top three conductors are silver copper and gold.whats interesting is that even small traces of other elements can seriously reduce conductivity. hence why we use “oxygen free copper”. most suppliers of metals have certain properties listed in their datasheets regarding conductivity, both thermal and electrical.aluminium is the most used for heatsinks as it is the cheapest, the lightest, and the easiest to machine or extrude. copper is used in some heatsinks as it performs better, but the machining is kept to a minimum…usually they consist of pieces that can be stamped and punched from copper sheet.the largest “resistance” is the junction between any two metals. the ideal heatsink is one continuous pice, such as an extruded aluminium heatsink.only a rather rich person could justify the use of gold or silver heatsinks!ive seen audio transformers sold that are wound with silver wire…. can you say expensive?