Why are metals used to make electric wire and electrical goods?

1 Answer
anor277
Aug 7, 2018

Metals have THREE characteristic properties...

Explanation:

#(i)# #"Metals are malleable."# They can be beaten into a sheet (cf. Latin, malleus , hammer).

#(ii)# #"Metals are ductile."# They can be drawn out into a wire.

#(iii)# #"Metals are conductive to heat and electricity."#

These properties are conceived to arise from the common description of metals: positive ions in a sea of electrons, the which allows movement of metal atoms with respect to each other WITHOUT disrupting the metallic bond. Ask your teacher for a SMALL bit of sodium. If you put this in a plastic bag you can roll it out with a bottle as you would with a sheet of pastry. Of course, you got to dispose of the sodium afterwards, but your teacher will know how to do this....

Related questions
See all questions in Properties of ionic, covalent, and metallic compounds
Impact of this question
8580 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License