Conductors vs. Insulators By: Zhong Zheng

Conductors Conductor- a material that allows an electric charge to easily pass through; efficient conductors include copper, iron, aluminum, and silver. Metals make the best conductors due to their elemental atoms having free flowing valence electrons that want to give up their electron in order to achieve a stable state of being a noble gas. Since the electrons are loose, a charge of electrons pass through the metal easily; each atom “passes” the electron to the adjacent electron until the electron is at the other end of the conductor.

Insulators Insulator- a material that has tightly bound valence electrons that has high resistance against the flow electric charges; includes wood, glass, dry air, and plastics. Insulators are usually non-metals, which resist charge due to the elemental atoms wanting to gain electrons instead of giving away electrons in becoming stable as a noble gas. This is due to non-metals having a higher ionization energy which makes the valence electrons tightly bound to the atom and resist the transfer of electrons from the electric charge.

Charging conductors Conduction- charging a conductor through direct contact of an already charged object. Since electrons on the charged object want to be as far away as possible, the excess electrons transfer to the conductor until equilibrium between electrons is reached between the two objects Induction- charging a conductor without direct contact with the process of polarization. Negatively charged object placed near a conductor: the conductor will become polarized the positive charges shift towards the charged object and negative charges repelled in the opposite direction

Electric fields around conductors Electric fields are the strongest near sharp edges of a conductor; electrons push each other up as they repel each other Electric field lines at the surface of a conductor is always perpendicular to the surface The electric field inside the middle of a conductor is always equal to zero, shown when a electric field