QUESTION
What are the
Uses of Conductors?
CHAPTER 1
Answers
What are
Conductors?
In Physics
and Electrical engineering, a conductor is an object or type of material that
allows the flow of electrical current in one or more directions. A metal wire
is a common electrical conductor.
Conductors
are materials that electrons to flow freely from particle to particle. An
object made of a conducting material will permit charge to be transferred
across an entire surface of the object.
Metal
conductors such as copper, aluminum and semi alloys(mixture of two or more
metals) e.g brass, phosphor-bronze and manganin are widely used in electrical
and electronic circuits.
In
electrical and electronic circuits and components, conductors are materials
that allow electric current to flow through them because their atomic structure
lets the outermost electrons move easily from one atom to another and because
the electrons carry a negative electric charge they are easily repelled by a
negative charge and attracted by a positive charge. Therefore applying a
voltage between the two ends of a conductor causes an electron drift from
negative to positive giving rise to an electric current.
Suitable
materials act as conductors:
1) Most metals
2) Some Gases
3) Solutions of Acids, Alkalis and salt
in water.
CHAPTER 2
USES OF CONDUCTORS
1)
Overhead
conductors carry electric power from generating stations to customers.
2)
Aluminum
wire, which has 61% of the conductivity of copper has been used in building
wiring for its lower cost.
3)
Aluminum
wire which are conductors are used for low voltage distribution such as buried
cables and service drops. It is the commonest metal used for voltage
transmission lines in combination with steel as structural reinforcement.
4)
Metals
such as copper, Aluminum and some alloys (mixture of two or more metals). E.g
brass, Phosphor-bronze and manganin are widely used in electrical and
electronics circuit.
5)
Electric
connectors in switches or in a main 13A plug uses a good conductor such as
brass for their main contacts.
6)
Phosphor-bronze
an alloy of copper and tin with some phosphorus is springy in nature and useful
for contacts such as the fuse holder in a mains plug as well as brushes used to
carry current between the stationary and rotating parts in some electric motors.
7)
Manganin
is another copper based alloy but with higher resistance used in the
construction of wire wound resistors and heater elements for high power
application.
8)
Aluminum
is commonly used as a conductor. It is much higher and useful for applications
such as large power distribution cables crossing the landscape strung on
electricity pylons.
9)
Copper
cables would be too heavy for this job.
10) Aluminum also has some properties useful
in the construction of transistors and diodes.
11) Silver is an
even better conductor than copper but since it is very expensive, it is only
used in very small amounts. Some electrical contacts which carry very small
current may be silver plated to improve their performance.
12) In conductive gases , some gases can pass current, such
as neon for example which produces a typical orange yellow glow when a small
electric current is passed through it at a high voltage. Neon indicator lamps
have many uses and can be used with either AC or DC current.
13) The main grade of copper used for electrical applications
such as building wire, motor windings, cables and bush hairs is electrolyte
tough pitch (ETP) copper.
14) Copper is still the most common choice for most high
guage wires.
15) Silver though it is very costly is used in specialized
equipment such as satellites and as a thin plating to mitigate skin effect
losses at high temperature.
16) Conductors are used for power distribution grid which
consist of conducting cables suspended between tall steel towers. The cables
are insulated from the towers by large glass insulators.
17) Conductors are used for domestic wiring consist of
insulated copper conductors carrying circuit current between the various
components within the system.
18) Conductors are used for Electronic circuit. An electronic
printed circuit board (PCB) consists of an insulated base board upon which
conductive tracks carry circuit current between the various components.
19) Conductors are used for making cooking utensils, kettles,
saucepans and boilers are usually made of Aluminum or stainless steel where
direct heating is involved.
20) Since metals are conductors. Iron is termed a conductor.
Soldering Iron rods are made of iron with the tip made of copper because copper
is a much better conductor of heat than Iron.
21) Conductors such as Heat exchangers are used in laundry to
enable precious fuel to be saved.
22) Conductors are used for electricity switch.
23) Conductors are in Iron press to transfer heat to cloths.
24) Conductors are used in utensils to transfer energy to
milk.
25) Conductors are used as cooling coils of copper inside
refrigerator and AC.
26) Conductors are used as Geasers for hot water.
27) Good electrical conductors are also good heat conductors.
CHAPTER 3
CONCLUSION
Conductors have been used over the year to improve lives and
the standard of living around the world because almost all fields makes use of
electronic extensively.
REFERENCE
1) Annual Book of ASTM Standards : Electrical conductors.
American Society for testing materials.
4) Fink and Beaty standard Handbook for electrical Engineers
11th Edition pages 17-19
5) High Conductivity coppers (electrical); Copper Development
Association (U.K) http://www.copperinfo.co.uk/alloys/copper
YOU CAN STILL DECIDE TO CHOOSE YOUR REFERENCE AND ALSO STATE YOUR OWN CONCLUSION.
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