spaco wrote:
I was just looking up expansion rates of metal for another post. The
next column in the Machinery's Handbook lists electrical conductivity
ratings. I have worked with electricity in one way or another, most of
my life, but I never realized how poorly some metals that are commonly
associated with electrical connections are!

With Silver as Conductivity = 100,
Copper = 97.61 Yup.
Lead = 8.42 !!! No wonder car batteries get hot!!!
Tin =14.39 !!! Lead and tin are the main constituents of most soft
solders. If you ever needed a case for making a good mechanical joint
before soldering, there it is!

Oh-- page 2193 of the 19th edition.

Pete Stanaitis

It's all relative, though, Pete. Iron (or steel) at room temperature
is about 12. Yet you don't think of that as being a poor conductor.
Or the mercury used in a mercury switch, which is under 2. They are
actually pretty decent conductors, with silver being an incredible one.
Unless you compare it, of course, to a superconductor down around
absolute zero....

John Martin