What Kind of Materials Conduct Electricity?

Personal Lab 8

Background

Over the past 100 years many ways have been discovered for controlling the flow of current in electric circuits. These technological developments have led to the immense variety of electric and electronic devices we use in our daily lives.
Here you will explore various materials to test which can and cannot conduct electricity.

Purpose

1) To understand what does and what does not constitute an electric circuit.

2) To discover what materials conduct electricity and what materials cannot conduct electricity.

Materials

Bulb (#48) (1)	Bulb holders
Battery (1.5 volt) (1)	Bag of "stuff"
Wire (stripped on both ends, 6") (2)	Clay (small amount)
Battery holder (1)	coins, assorted

Procedure

Assemble a bulb and a battery in the holders as shown in the figure. Connect the wires as shown, where the two open ends of the wires are propped on a piece of clay. Test that the bulb and battery are functioning by touching the two bare ends of the wires together. Use this arrangement to test the materials in your "bag of stuff" to find which are conductors and which do not conduct (insulators) electricity.

Questions

1. Make a list of materials that conduct and materials that do not conduct electricity. State what your criterion is for an "electrical conductor".

2. Write a general statement that could serve as a definition for an electric circuit. Explain your definition.

3. What patterns did you notice in the kinds of materials that conducted electricity and those that did not conduct electricity? Write a statement which describes a conductor and one that describes an insulator.

4. Write a general statement that describes a "conductor" in an electric circuit.

5. What is the source of electric energy in your electric circuits?

6. Did it make a difference which way you inserted the battery in the battery holder or connected it in the circuit? Explain.