What is Conductor: Definition and 811 Discussions

In physics and electrical engineering, a conductor is an object or type of material that allows the flow of charge (electrical current) in one or more directions. Materials made of metal are common electrical conductors. Electrical current is generated by the flow of negatively charged electrons, positively charged holes, and positive or negative ions in some cases.
In order for current to flow within a closed electrical circuit, it is not necessary for one charged particle to travel from the component producing the current (the current source) to those consuming it (the loads). Instead, the charged particle simply needs to nudge its neighbor a finite amount, who will nudge its neighbor, and on and on until a particle is nudged into the consumer, thus powering it. Essentially what is occurring is a long chain of momentum transfer between mobile charge carriers; the Drude model of conduction describes this process more rigorously. This momentum transfer model makes metal an ideal choice for a conductor; metals, characteristically, possess a delocalized sea of electrons which gives the electrons enough mobility to collide and thus affect a momentum transfer.
As discussed above, electrons are the primary mover in metals; however, other devices such as the cationic electrolyte(s) of a battery, or the mobile protons of the proton conductor of a fuel cell rely on positive charge carriers. Insulators are non-conducting materials with few mobile charges that support only insignificant electric currents.

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  1. H

    Circular conductor with changing T effecting power and magnetic field

    Homework Statement When we keep a circular copper (ohmic) conductor at a constant temperature T_1, thermal energy is produced along it at a rate P_1 and the magnetic field at its center has magnitude B_1. Then, we heat the conductor to a higher constant temperature T_2 (i.e. T_2>T_1). At...
  2. S

    Maximum possible current in a Conductor

    If we are given a metallic conductor in a given Temperature(Room temperature here), Area of cross section A, is there an upper limit to the strength of the current through such a conductor due to the upper limit for drift velocity(v)?? I=nAve e=electron charge n=electron density
  3. M

    Electric field inside a conductor

    Hello, I was curious, why is that for an electric field to be zero, the conductor must be in static equilibrium, but when charges are moving, the electric field is nonzero?
  4. S

    Point Charge in an uncharged spherical conductor

    Homework Statement Consider a point charge q > 0 which is surrounded by a hollow metal sphere (uncharged) with inner radius R1 and outer radius R2. Use Gauss Law to determine the electric field E=E(r)er in the following regions: (i) 0 < r < R1 (ii) R1 < r < R2 (iii) r > R2 Homework...
  5. M

    Moving a point charge out of a cavity in a conductor

    Homework Statement A point charge q is at the center of an uncharged spherical conducting shell, of inner radius a and outer radius b. How much work would it take to move the charge out to in nity? (fi nd the minimum work needed. Assume charge can take out through a tiny hole drilled in...
  6. S

    Good dielectric yet hole conductor?

    Is there some material that could withstand relatively high voltages before it starts to conduct electrons,but in the same time a good hole conductor? Could such material be obtained by doping some dielectric similar to SiO2?
  7. fluidistic

    Understanding the physics of induced charge over a perfect conductor

    Understanding the physics of "induced charge" over a perfect conductor When we put a perfect conductor, let's say a sphere inside an external electric field, there will be a surface charge distribution different from 0 even though the sphere is electrically neutral. I don't really understand...
  8. M

    Insulator and conductor with electrostatic problems

    I was wondering, what is the distinction made with problems involving either conductors or insulators with electrostatic problems. Is it that the electric field in an insulator doesn't have to be zero, whereas the electric field in a conductor is always 0?
  9. M

    Plate conductor in electrostatic equilibrium

    Homework Statement A thin, square, conducting plate 50.0 cm on a side lies in the xy plane. A total charge of 4.00 x 10-8 C is placed on the plate. Find (a) the charge density on each face of the plate, (b) the electric field just above the plate, and (c) the electric field just below the...
  10. A

    Clarification about a conductor as an equipotential

    Clarification about a conductor as an equipotential... Homework Statement This is not a specific problem, but a general question I have. In Griffiths 2.5 (pg. 97 for Third Edition), it states that "A conductor is an equipotential. For if a and b are any two points within (or at the...
  11. N

    Spherical conductor with point charge not in center

    Homework Statement How do the charges distribute when I have a spherical conductor centered cavity with a point charge not in center inside the cavity? See image: Homework Equations N/AThe Attempt at a Solution I would guess solution 1, but my tutor says it's 4, and I just can't believe him...
  12. S

    Which Materials Are Good Electron-Hole Conductors and Affordable?

    Which materials exhibit good electron and hole conductivity in the same time? And which of them are cheap and available?
  13. J

    Inductance of hollow conductor (copper pipe)

    Hi Everyone, I'm working on some inductance calculations and was wondering if anyone knows of any formulas (or methods) to determine the inductance of a straight piece of copper pipe, if the ID, wall thickness, and length are known? The closest thing I have found so far was the inductance of...
  14. M

    Boundary conditions on a conductor?

    I've been trying to get my head arround this problem for several days now, and while I deemed it relatively simple at first it turns out that I can't figure out the BCs on a conductor, to which we apply a potential U. In the simplified version of the problem, there is a rectangular conductor...
  15. R

    Calculate the charge in a hollow spherical conductor

    Homework Statement Consider a hollow spherical conductor with total charge +5e. The outer and inner radii are a and b, respectively. (a) Calculate the charge on the sphere's inner and outer surfaces if a charge of -3e is placed at the center of the sphere. (Use the following as...
  16. C

    Electric field on surface of earthed conductor

    Homework Statement A charge q is a distance d from the centre of an earthed conducting sphere of radius a (d > a). Given that the image charge for this system is is q1 located a distance b from the centre of the sphere where ##q_1 = -\frac{aq}{d},\,\,b = \frac{a^2}{d}##, calculate an...
  17. N

    Work needed to move conductor in constant electric field

    How did Walther Lewin arrive to the result W = x*(σ/2ε0) in 3:00-4:00? Ie, why did he take the average? I don't get it entirely.
  18. C

    Relationship between current and current density for a volume conductor

    (I'd like to preface this with the warning that the following question may be a very dumb one.) My understanding is that current density (or flux) \vec{J} = \vec{J}(x, y, z) is the rate of flow of charge (or the current) per unit area. (Units of \frac{\text{C/s}}{\text{cm}^2} .) Say...
  19. dexterdev

    What does +ve charge in conductor means, do they move

    Hello pf, Electrons are the charge carriers in metal conductor. while explaining about the fact the fact that electric field inside a conductor is zero, there is a depiction showing charge moves to surface (+ve and -ve charges to extremes of metal conductor surface) in emt books...
  20. S

    Electric Field Inside a Conductor Using Gauss's Law

    Homework Statement A hollow metal sphere has 7cm and 9cm inner and outer radii, respectively. The surface charge density on the inside surface is - 300nC/m^2</units> . The surface charge density on the exterior surface is + 300nC/m^2</units> . What is the strength of the Electric Field at...
  21. M

    Person inside an isolated conductor

    Homework Statement You are inside a large, hollow conductor that is isolated from the ground. There is a large charge on the conductor. If you touch the inside of it, will you be harmed? What if you had a charge with opposite sign of that on the conductor? Homework Equations N/A...
  22. S

    Finding E fields and potential given a hollow spherical conductor

    Hello, this is my first post here, so hopefully I do this in the right way... Homework Statement A hollow spherical conductor carries a net charge of 21.5 μC. The radius of the inner hollow is 5.2 cm and thee full radius of the sphere is 7.8 cm. At the center of the sphere, in the...
  23. G

    How Is Drift Velocity Calculated in a Conductor?

    Dear all, I have a question on the derivation of the drift velocity in a conductor, and was wondering if somebody could help me with it: drift velocity is the average velocity which a free charge moving in a conductor has due to the influence of an electric field applied to the conductor. In...
  24. D

    Force on conductor carrying currentsurrounded by solid magnetic material

    i want to compare force on current carrying conductor , 1)placed in air surrounded by magnetic field 2)placed in the cylindrical cavity(without air gap but some electrical insulation) which is placed in magnetic field. please give me practically calculated answers with calculations.
  25. C

    Charge distribution over a solid conductor

    I was watching a video on the internet about charge distributions over solid conductors. The solid conductor was heart shaped which was positively charged. The lecturer in the video said that when you touched this conductor, the charge would distribute itself non-uniformly over the surface of...
  26. A

    Cutting a polarized conductor in half

    If you have a bar conductor that's moving perpendicular to a magnetic field, the magnetic force would bring all the electrons to one side of the conductor, leaving one end positive and the other end negative. If you cut the conductor in half while it is moving, will one end be positively...
  27. mishima

    How does induced charge affect the balance of a conducting beam?

    Say you had a rectangular piece of conductor perfectly balanced on a central pivot point. Around it, you put something that causes an electric field throughout the region. On one end of the balanced piece, atomic cores get exposed as the electron sea rushes to the opposite side via induction...
  28. A

    Mechanical force on unit area of charged conductor.

    Homework Statement OK first, I didn't know where to post this since it is and is not homework,anyways, posting here would be safest. Now, the attached scan is a proof from my (not so trustworthy) textbook and I have some doubts in it. The first doubt is in statement S1 : Every element...
  29. X

    True or false? a conductor through a uniform magnetic field produces NO emf

    Many sources on the web claim that when moving a conductor through a magnetic field, an emf is produced. However, some sources claim, that the intensity of the magnetic field also needs to change in order to produce a voltage over the conductor, for example...
  30. S

    Question on electric lines and conductor

    i have read that if we place an unit positive electric charge in an electric field the path in which it moves is the electric lines of force of that electric field . is it true ? and again that the lines of force doesn't make a closed curve . is that also true ? if yes then if we can make a...
  31. N

    Why magnetic field from a current carrying conductor obey inverse-square law?

    I have read that the electric field from a point charge fall off as 1/(r*r) since it is analogous to variation of intensity of radation from source (whose geometric proof depends on solid-angle), similarily is there any geometric explanation why magnetic field in the stated case fall off as...
  32. M

    The Electric Field Inside A Hollow Rectangular Conductor

    Hello , What is the electric field inside a hollow rectangular conductor of length ( L ) ?
  33. B

    Radiation vector for a short dipole near a perfect magnetic conductor

    Hi there. If I wanted to calculate the radiation vector (in z > 0) produced by a short dipole with uniform current Io (+z direction) on a infinite perfect electric conductor (plane z=0), I'd have to apply the images method. So I'd have to calculate the radiation vector produced by two short...
  34. A

    Electromagnetic wave in a conductor

    When an electromagnetic wave hits a conductor the transmitted part of the wave is damped considerably. I want to know if anyone can explain physically why the field is attentuated inside the conductor - i.e. what happens. I know the basic properties of a conductor: - Electrons free to roam -...
  35. A

    Electric Field and Potential in a Conductor: Zero at the Surface?

    I understand that if two points are inside a conductor they're at the same potential. I also understand that if two points lie on the surface of the conductor they're at the same potential. If point a lies on the surface of a conductor and point b lies inside is there still zero potential...
  36. H

    Spherical Conductor lies at the center of a uniform spherical charge sheet

    Homework Statement A ground spherical conductor of radius a lies at the center of a uniform spherical sheet of charge QB and radius b. a) How much charge is induce on the conductor's surface? Ans(-QBa/b) Evaluate V(r) at position between the conductor and the sheet and outside the sheet...
  37. A

    Understanding EM Waves in Conductors

    I don't really understand how electromagnetic waves in wires are created. Sure you can see from the Maxwell equations that the fields satisfy the wave equation. But if you plug some cables onto a battery isn't the situation more or less static. I mean the electric field from the battery has...
  38. M

    Electric field lines next to conductor

    Dear Physics Forums readers Let a two dimensional rectangle R1 carry a surface charge \sigma and be placed next to another rectangle R2 of the same shape made from metal (i.e. a conductor). What does the electric field look like close to the second rectangle? My intuition would tell me, the...
  39. X

    Finding potential inside the cavity of a Conductor

    Homework Statement A conductor, maintained at a potential V, contains a spherical cavity of radius R. A point charge q is placed at a distance a ( a < R)from the center of the cavity. Find the potential of the electric field in the cavity . Homework Equations I was considering using...
  40. A

    Why does net charge always reside on the surface of a conductor?

    If you place a conductor in an external E-field the charges inside it will move so as to cancel off the field making the field inside the conductor zero. My question is: Is this also true if you place some net charge on a conductor? Will the field inside it then still be zero? The net charge...
  41. E

    Heating time near a conductor

    Hi. Practical situation. If I have 0.25W of constant Joule loss around a small piece of copper electric conductor, then I would like to find out how much time until a small piece of "Something" (let's say 100mg at 1 kJ/kg*K) around the conductor heats up to 200°C. From my calculations...
  42. C

    Laplace equation on two semi-infinite conductor planes

    Homework Statement Two semi-infinite conductor planes (like this ∠ ) have an angle β at a constant potential. Whats the potencial close to the origin? Homework Equations ∇²V = (1/r)(∂/∂r){ r ( ∂V/∂r ) } + (1/r²)(∂²V/∂\theta²) The Attempt at a Solution Trying for laplacian equation on...
  43. bcrowell

    Numerical method for finding charge density on a conductor

    I'm interested in working out an efficient and precise numerical method to find the charge density on a conductor with an axially symmetric shape that is essentially a deformed sphere. (I have in mind something like r(\theta)=\sum \beta_\ell P_\ell(\cos\theta), where P is a Legendre polynomial.)...
  44. bcrowell

    Charge distribution on a conductor

    Recently I've been trying to understand this subject in more detail. I thought I'd post some of what I've learned here in case either (a) it's useful to others, or (b) others can add to what I've found out. Surprisingly, this seems to be a subject on which people are still publishing papers, and...
  45. D

    Conductor and insulator

    why is it quite difficult to understand about conductor,insulator and resistor in parellel and series circuit?any way and method for easy understanding...help please...
  46. H

    The Electric Field Inside an induced Conductor

    I don't quite grasp this statement : Open attachment to view the image of what's going on The field from a positive charge Q pulls electrons to the surface of the metal nearest Q, leaving a net positive charge on the surface farthest from Q. The fields of these induced charges resting on...
  47. B

    Electric field inside conductor

    Homework Statement A spherical conducting shell of inner radius a and outer radius b contains a centrally-located point charge +Q. Is an electric field present at radii (i) less than a, (ii) between a and b, and (iii) greater than b? Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution...
  48. Y

    Positive charge distribution in a conductor

    Hi experts, I still do not understand how positive charge is distributed inside a conductor. In case of extra electrons is it quite evident, as they are free to move and repel each other, so they go as far away as they can. But what exactly happens if electrons are removed from a conductor...
  49. A

    Direction of electric current in a conductor

    ok so here is the question number 45 and its second part and this is what i did I have a c magnet drawn with the north pole and the bottom opening right. And the magnetic field lines running between the two polls (virtically) And I have a conductor running between the poles...
  50. C

    Calculating the charge distribution on the surface of an assymetric conductor

    How do I calculate the charge distribution on the surface of any asymmetric closed conducting surface? Is it possible for me to calculate the surface charge density 'σ' as a function of '\bar{r}' the position vector in a spherical co-ordinate system in space, provided I know that the conductor...
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