Best electrical conductor?
JACK
Gold, Silver, or Platinum?
I heard, during WW1, one government building was wired with
silver wiring; because, copper resources was used for the
war. Can anyone confirm this?
--
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J.
jty...@csupomona.edu
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Greg Fretwell
6 for copper. Gold is next at 2.44 x 10-6 and platnum trails way back at
1 x10-5.
The effect of oxidation probably gives the edge to copper over silver
even if price was not an issue but, as we know, gold is somewhat immune
to that so we see gold over copper in contact tabs on computer parts.
This gold plating is very thin so the effect of the higher resistance is
minor compared to the lack of oxidation. Silver was used in the
Manhattan project but I haven't really heard of a confirmed case of a
regular building being wired in silver.
Greg
Matthew D. Beasley
the overhead line for the electric trollies replaced with silver wire when
the copper ran out due to the shortage of copper.
Greg Fretwell wrote in message
<7fne0b$3jpi$1...@newssvr03-int.news.prodigy.com>...
Pete Puma
--
Scott A. Whitsitt
pete...@mediaone.net
Matthew D. Beasley wrote in message ...
Kevin Baker
Pete Puma wrote in message ...
+AD4-Even pennies were made of silver during the war... at least a silver alloy.
+AD4-
Sorry, Pete. They were steel. I have some. Making them of silver would
have been counterproductive as the metal content would have been more
valuable than the penny face value.
Ron Butchart
Ron
Kevin Baker wrote in message <7COT2.1105$Y52....@news.flash.net>...
Pete Puma
It may be difficult to believe, but this isn't the first mistake I've ever
made... oh well.
--
Scott
pete...@mediaone.net
Ron Butchart wrote in message <#TyJ8JSj#GA.204@cpmsnbbsa03>...
>Nickels were ,however, made of silver during that same time frame.
>
> Ron
>Kevin Baker wrote in message <7COT2.1105$Y52....@news.flash.net>...
>>
>>Pete Puma wrote in message ...
>>>Even pennies were made of silver during the war... at least a silver
>alloy.
>>>
Lord Hoo-Wa!
conductor! What is the matter with you guys?
BillyFish wrote in message <19990422232406...@ng-fy1.aol.com>...
>Nickels had some silver content. I would dissolve them in nitric acid and
>precipitate AgCl using hydrochloric acid.
>
>Bill
Greg Fretwell
"Pete Puma" <Pete...@iname.com> wrote:
>
>Even pennies were made of silver during the war... at least a silver
alloy.
>
>--
>Scott A. Whitsitt
>petepuma+AEA-mediaone.net
BillyFish
rto...@oanet.com
<ramabo...@sprynet.com> wrote:
>I thought the original question was which metal was the best electrical
>conductor! What is the matter with you guys?
>BillyFish wrote in message <19990422232406...@ng-fy1.aol.com>...
>>Nickels had some silver content. I would dissolve them in nitric acid and
>>precipitate AgCl using hydrochloric acid.
>>
>>Bill
>
Hey! You get to our age and the mind wanders a bit. What was the
question again?
Oh yes. The conductivity of silver is 108 percent of that of copper.
Now are you happy?
Pete Puma
LETH'R
Pete Puma wrote in message ...
+AD4-what's a conductor?
+AD4-
+AD4---
+AD4-Scott A. Whitsitt
+AD4-petepuma+AEA-mediaone.net
+AD4-
+AD4-
+AD4-
+AD4-
Pete Puma
--
Scott A. Whitsitt
pete...@mediaone.net
LETH'R wrote in message <7fql3a$nh9$1...@news1.fast.net>...
>Thatsa da guy what taka you ticket.
>
>Pete Puma wrote in message ...
Je...@nunyabiz.nes
wrote:
>what's a conductor?
The person leading the orchestra, and the silver haired ones conduct
better.
Based solely on conductivity, isn't aluminum a better conductor than
silver? I was always told that but never looked it up.
rto...@oanet.com
No way. Alum is a relatively poor conductor.
William L. Bahn
These are the values for pure metals that are below 5 microOhm-cm
Resistivity at 25C: (microOhm-cm) or (x10^-8 Ohm-meters)
Silver 1.467
Copper 1.543
Gold 2.051
Aluminum: 2.709
Calcium 3.36
Beryllium 3.56
Magnesium 4.39
Sodium 4.77
Tungsten 4.82
Molybdenum 4.85
Platinum 10.5
Lead 20.8
Mercury 94.1 (at 0C)
These are all that were in the table I have from the 1993 CRC Electrical
Engineering Handbook. I know that a few other materials are near my
threashold, such as Iridium and Rhodium, but I don't have data at room
temperature.
I have included platinum because it was specifically requested in the
original post.
I have included lead and mercury because they makes a point regarding
temperature. Clearly, they are very poor electrical conductors at room
temperature (relative to these other material), but even mercury's high
resistivity doesn't make it unsuitable for switches - but you generally rely
on the physical dimensions of the mercury bulb to create a low overall
resistance. But what if you ask about the best conductor at cryogenic
temperatures? Mercury and lead are both superconductors at liquid helium
temperatures. Aluminum goes superconductive at about 1.8K (lead at 7.2K).
Copper, silver and gold never transition to a superconducting state.
Another question in the original post, IIRC, was about using silver in place
of copper during WWII. I forget the application the poster cited - I
don'tknow about that one - but some of the big betatrons at Oak Ridge were
wound with silver wire due to the shortage of copper. As you can see, silver
doesn't have enough of an advantage over copper, resistivity wise, to use
silver solely for it's electrical properties (though other properties may
come into play). It was purely an availability issue. The silver was
borrowed (and it had to be returned after the war) from the treasury
depatment. The story goes that the Treasury guy came into the meeting with
General Groves not understanding how much silver they were talking about. He
asked how many troy-ounces was required and Gen Groves responded with a
number that was in tons.
Je...@nunyabiz.nes wrote in message <3724e462...@news.earthlink.net>...