Conductors and electrons

[shihab-kol]

Why is a sea of electrons present in a conductor?
I read some where that they absorb a energy at normal temperatures and use it to get free electrons , but then why do they absorb energy while insulators don't??

 

[Drakkith]

In metallic conductors the atoms bond together in a particular way that results in one or more electrons being shared completely between the atoms. The behavior of huge numbers of these electrons in a metal can be described as a "sea of free charges", meaning that they are free to roam around the entire conductor at will.

I read some where that they absorb a energy at normal temperatures and use it to get free electrons , but then why do they absorb energy while insulators don't??

Conductors already have free electrons and don't need thermal energy to free the electrons from their atoms.

 

[shihab-kol]

Ok.
What do you mean by "being shared completely"? How do they roam around then?


PS
How do you insert quotes?

 

[Drakkith]

What do you mean by "being shared completely"? How do they roam around then?

Metallic bonding: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallic_bonding

The sharing let's them move throughout the entire material freely. There's not much more I can say about that. See if the link above helps.

How do you insert quotes?

Click "Reply" to quote the entire post. Highly text in a post and click "Reply" in the popup to quote that piece of text. Alternatively, you can click "Quote" instead to add that post or piece of text to a quote que. After adding text or posts to the quote que, you click "Insert Quotes" that appears in the bottom left of the reply box.

 

[shihab-kol]

Thanks.
That helped and the quote part too!