slh

Does anyone know what substance conducts electricity the best?

simian

Any of the supeconductors - no resistance. Of course, you have to chill them (quite a bit, unless things have changed greatly since the last time I checked).

slh

That sounds about right. But let me be a little more direct. Some one told me that pure water is the most conductive substance. Lets assume we leave out super chilled stuff. This woman was full of it right?

Mageth

Yes, she was full of it. Pure water has very low conductivity. The presence of impurities (salts, etc.) increase water's conductivity. I believe the purity of water can actually be estimated by testing its conductivity - in general, the less pure, the higher the conductivity.

As to other elements or compounds, I don't know what has the highest conductivity, but I believe silver has the highest conductivity of the metallic elements.

Gurdur

IIRC, gold.

MortalWombat

That's right. The ultrapure water we get out of our Milli-Q purifiers in the lab has a resistance of about 18 MegaOhms.

Mageth

Nope, it's silver. Gold comes in third.

RESISTANCE (ohm-m) CONDUCTIVITY (SIEMENS/m)

Silver, Pure:
1.591E-08 ..................6.287E+07

Copper, Pure:
1.664E-08 ..................6.009E+07

Gold, Pure:
2.463E-08 ..................4.060E+07


(edited to get better numbers from here.)

Craig

That's funny, because those car-audio shops all recommend those super expensive gold components claiming the best conductivity. Next time I'm in there I'll bring that list and ask if I can get silver instead.

Mageth

Or copper.

And, of course, Silver has the highest conductivity of all the elements.

slh

Thanks folks. This woman starts talking and asks whats the most conductive substance to electricity. Off the cuff and not really knowing, I said copper. She looked at me like I was a pitiful moron and proceded to tell everybody that it was water.

Grrrr....