10 Examples of Electrical Conductors and Insulators

Do you know how electrical conductors and insulators work? In case you dont, lets review just what conductors and insulators are. Conductors vs. Insulators Simply put, electrical conductors are materials that conduct electricity, while insulators do not. How does that work? Whether a substance conducts electricity depends on how easily electrons can move through it. For example, protons dont move because, while they would carry an electrical charge, they are bound to other protons and neutrons in atomic nuclei. Valence electrons are like outer planets orbiting a star. Theyre attracted enough to stay in position, but it doesnt always take a lot of energy to knock them out of place. Metals readily lose and gain electrons, so they top the list of conductors. Organic molecules are mostly insulators, in part because theyre held together by covalent (shared electron) bonds and also because hydrogen bonding helps stabilize many molecules. Most materials are neither good conductors nor good insulators. They dont readily conduct, but if enough energy is supplied, the electrons will move. Some materials in pure form are insulators but will conduct if they are doped with small quantities of another element or if they contain impurities. For example, most ceramics are excellent insulators, but if you dope them, you can create a superconductor. Pure water is an insulator, while dirty water conducts weakly and saltwater—with its free-floating ions—conducts well. 10 Electrical Conductors The best electrical conductor, under conditions of ordinary temperature and pressure, is the metallic element silver. Its not always an ideal choice as a material, however, due to its cost and because it tarnishes. The oxide layer known as tarnish is not conductive. Similarly, rust, verdigris, and other oxide layers reduce conductivity. The following are examples of effective electrical conductors: SilverGoldCopperAluminumMercurySteelIronSeawaterConcreteMercury More conductors: PlatinumBrassBronzeGraphiteDirty waterLemon juice 10 Electrical Insulators RubberGlassPure waterOilAirDiamondDry woodDry cottonPlasticAsphalt More insulators: FiberglassDry paperPorcelainCeramicsQuartz Other Factors That Influence Conductivity Its worth noting the shape and size of a material affect its conductivity. For example, a thick piece of matter will conduct better than a thin piece of the same size and length. If you take two pieces of a material of the same thickness, but one is shorter than the other, the shorter one will conduct better. This is because the shorter piece has less resistance, in much the same way that its easier to force water through a short pipe than a long one. Temperature also affects conductivity. As temperature increases, atoms and their electrons gain energy. Some insulators (e.g., glass) are poor conductors when cool, yet good conductors when hot. Most metals are better conductors when cool and less efficient conductors when hot. Some good conductors become superconductors at extremely low temperatures. Although electrons flow through a conductive material, they dont damage the atoms or cause wear, as would the friction of water in a canyon, for example. Moving electrons do experience resistance or cause friction, however. The flow of electrical current can lead to the heating of a conductive material.

Robert Pirsigs Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance...

Robert Pirsigs Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values Confronting crises of technological annihilation and personal madness, Robert Pirsig finds each to be a manifestation of a deeper crisis of Reason. In response) he suggests an alternative to our current paradigm of rationality, the art of motorcycle maintenance. By showing that our understanding and performance derive from our emotional and evaluative commitments, he challenges the cultural commonplace which construes subjective states as distortions of objective reality. In so doing, he asserts that wholeness or sanity may be achieved only through passionate caring, and an awareness and acceptance of how our emotions and values shape our†¦show more content†¦Yet whereas we are never left alone by our technology, we are increasingly lonely, alienated from our deepest selves. For we have lost touch with our own feelings, being educated to ignore them in order to function in a technological world. Like Bergmans intellectual illiterates, we are so uneducated about our inner fee lings that we only learn to talk about them when we break down, and have to be repaired by the analyst, at the Group, or in the asylum. For, we learn, our feelings distort our objective perceptions, and thus prevent us from functioning like our machines. In this vein, Andy Warhol wryly recalls that he had always wanted to be like a machine, for then it was easier to get along with people. We thus find ourselves fragmented, our feelings alienated from our world, our lives as well as our literature being characterizable by T. S. Eliots phrase, dissociation of sensibility. Parallel to this public, cultural crisis of technologically-induced fragmentation, Pirsig faces his own personal crisis of fragmentation or madness. Some years earlier he had been declared clinically insane, and underwent electro-shock therapy to annihilate his mad personality. This earlier self, whom he now calls Phaedrus, had gone mad as a result of a search for Truth which led him ultimately to repudiate Reason itself.[1] Pursuing the ghost of reason throughShow MoreRelatedZen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Quality by Robert Pirsig815 Words   |  3 PagesZen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance And Quality Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as written by Robert Pirsig, focuses on a number of philosophical life values. These values include quality, identity, duality, and Zen. This paper will focus mainly on the subject of quality and the effect dwelling on its definition had on Pirsig. Pirsig has put an incredible amount of thought into defining Quality. Starting just about at the start of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, theRead MoreReading Summary : A Portrait Of Managerial Powers1183 Words   |  5 Pagesthat is extremely difficult to accurately quantify in a book. Leadership is an art. As with the visual arts, there are numerous ideas how to accomplish a task; however, it is its appeal to the masses which sells the painting. Similarly, the success of leadership does not exist in the strategies that managers employ, it lies in the trust that followers place in the managers’ ability to produce their leadership art. There is not a specific recipe for quality leadership; if the employee does notRead MoreGroupthink Theory Essay3525 Words   |  15 PagesFirst of all, it is very difficult to avoid groupthink because as individuals, we tend to choose group members who are like-mind and tend to filter out those who aren’t. This is the concept of ‘Kin’, which is mentioned in Robert Pirsig’s â€Å"Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance†. As individuals, we have familiarity towards people that we feel connected to and who have a similar state of mind. We do this because we try to avoid conflict within the group. Contrary to popular belief, conflict can

Hesitation Marks by Nine Inch Nails free essay sample

Hesitation Marks is definitely not the Nine Inch Nails album that I was expecting, but it is also one that I found to be incredibly unique in its own right. Some of the tracks, such as Everything, have a distinctive poppy sound to them, but I actually thought this certain aspect of the album made it that much more appealing. I applaud Trent Reznor for trying something new with his comeback album, and I just love how he changes the overall sound of each album, and makes each one extremely different from the others. The only real gripe I have with this new album is the lyrical content. In my honest opinion, its just not as strong as the lyrics in Trent Reznors previous efforts, and that really brought the album down for me. One of the things I look for in an album are good lyrics for each of the songs, and I didnt get that with most of the tracks on here. We will write a custom essay sample on Hesitation Marks by Nine Inch Nails or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Some of the stand-out songs on Hesitation Marks were Find My Way, (one of the only songs with impressive lyrics) Everything, Came Back Haunted, Copy of a, Satellite, and I Would for You. Before you shake your head at my decision to include Everything in that list, let me first say that this particular tune had to grow on me before I really began to love it. It certainly was quite polarizing at first, and I honestly didnt know what to think of it. But now, I fully appreciate it for what it is: an upbeat pop song that has exceptional lyrics about finally finding happiness. I can really relate to it. All in all, this is a solid album, but not all Nine Inch Nails fans will like it. Trent Reznors style has changed, and I kind of predicted this when I heard his collaboration with Atticus Ross: the 39-song soundtrack for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Why is Mesopotamia known as the cradle of civilization an Example by

Why is Mesopotamia known as the cradle of civilization? The name Mesopotamia refers to the land between two rivers the Tigres to the east and the Euphrates to the west. The later is referred to in Genesis 2 v14 as flowing out of the Garden of Eden, so the Biblical writers seem to have felt that this area was where humanity began. Need essay sample on "Why is Mesopotamia known as the cradle of civilization?" topic? We will write a custom essay sample specifically for you Proceed University Students Usually Tell EssayLab writers: Idon't want to write my essay. Because I don't have the time Specialists propose: Find Brilliant Papers For Sale Here Best Student Essay Writing Company Cheap Essay Writing Legitimate Essay Writing Services College Essay Writing Service In that place a city, U r of the Chaldeans, was built, the ruins of which can still be seen at Tell Mugheir which lies 140 miles south of ancient Babylon and 150 miles to the northwest of the Persian Gulf in modern Iraq. The main ruins cover some 150 acres and were uncovered over a period of many years, beginning with the excavations of J.E. Taylor in 1854. Chaldean civilzation The Chaldeans were a Semitic tribe, i.e they spoke one of the Semitic languages and were Caucasians, said to have descended from Shem, son of Noah. They lived mainly on the banks of the Euphrates. Their civilization had many of the attributes that we recognize in modern cities at a period when most people of the world were still hunter gatherers. Eridu, which is a few miles to the SSW of Ur, was another religious center, with a temple to the god of the sea and of wisdom. It too was rediscovered in the19th century According to records it was at one time actually on the coast and alluvial deposits seem to date it somewhere in the7th millennium B.C.E., although the earliest settlers in the area arrived about 9,000 B.C.E. according to The History Guide, Lecture 2. These early settlers established agriculture and the domestication of animals. The cities seem to have been a response to organise such things as irrigation, trade and the needs of a larger population. As is often the case the city grew up on the banks of the river, it being their source of water and of trade.. Taylor uncovered a temple mound or ziggurat which climbed in three levels to a height of 70 feet known as the Mountain of Heaven. 70 feet may not sound impressive to us, but this would have been the only large building in the plain and visible for miles around. Buried at the four corners of the ziggurat were cuneiform tablets telling of the name of the city and its founder and who had carried out repairs to the temple over the years. So we see that this was a city that was organised enough for its citizens to work together on this huge construction project. In the temple area many records were found revealing that the people paid tithes and that the temple also benefited from trade. Leonard Woolleys excavation of 1924, as recorded in the Thompson Chain Bible archeological supplement, page 364, revealed some 4 square miles of the city outside this sacred area. There were quays for shipping, commercial buildings, houses of two stories with fire places and sanitary systems. There were c hapels for worship and a school building where tablets revealed that reading, writing, including grammar, mathematics and history were taught. The cemeteries revealed huge tombs where many retainers had died in order to accompany their king or queen to the after life. So we see that this city used writing to keep records from such beginnings would later emerge literature of all kinds, poetry, stories, plays, even modern advertising, all began when someone discovered that they could make permanent marks that could be later read by themselves and others. They had mathematics in their case only arithmetic, but this is where all branches of mathematics begin. They had religion and a concept of the afterlife, so these people were capable of spiritual and abstract thought. They were able to trade with other people, both to get rid of surplus goods in a profitable way, and also to obtain what they could not produce themselves e.g. the lapis lazuli found in the royal tombs which may well have come all the way from Afghanistan, although there are small deposits elsewhere. Later in their history the people of this area founded the Babylonian empire which stretched from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. They would become great astronomers, able to study the planets and stars with great accuracy. In Genesis 11 we have the description of Abram taking Sarai for his wife, so they understood concepts of family and commitment. According to Dr Gerard Falk Abram was a Hebrew, the name meaning one who crossed over, i.e. one who forded the river in order to look for the land to which he believed God had sent him. Abram , later Abraham, is of course acknowledged as the forefather of both Judaism, and so Christianity and Islam. So these civilizations and their religions, with the idea of monotheism and family and moral values also were born in Mesopotamia. Conclusion So we see that many things that we consider to be civilized such as organised city life, trade with other lands, the beginnings of literature and science, agriculture, social interaction and marriage as well as abstract concepts such as an afterlife and spirituality. They kept records, educated their young people and were able to work together to reach common goals. These are all things that we, as modern people still do and still value even after 9,000 years. Bibliography Thompson Chain Bible, King James Version, 1964, London Eyre and Spottiswood. Electronic sources FALK, G. Chaldea found at http://www.jbuff.com/c041603.htm retrieved 29th October 2007 SEMITIC definition found at http://www.webster-dictionary.net/definition/Semitic retrieved 29th October 2007