Conductors & Insulatoes

Different wires and place across the same two battery terminals allow different amount of charge to flow between the terminals. Many factors such as the density, mobility and stability characteristics of a material account for these variation in charge flow.

• In  general however, conductors are those materials that permit a generous flow of electrons with very little external force applied.
• Good conductors typically have only one electron in the valence distance from the ring. 

Since copper is used most frequently it serves as the standard of comparison for the relative conductivity . Note that aluminum which has seen some commercial use has only 61% of the conductivity level of copper. The chose of material must be weighed against the cost and weight factors however.

Insulators are those materials that have very few free electrons and require a large applied potential to establish a measurable current level.

A common use if insulating material is for covering current carrying wire which if uninsulated, could cause dangerous side effect. Power line workers wear rubber gloves and stand on rubber mats as safety measure when working on high voltage transmission line.

A number of different types of insulators and their application appear.

Be aware , however that even the best insulator will break down mit charge to flow through it,if a sufficiently large potential is applied across it. The breakdown strengths of some common insulators are listed. According to the insulators with the same geometric shape.