Insulators and Conductors: Electrical and heat
- Metals conduct electricity. (Allow electricity to pass through them)
- Plastic is an electrical insulator. (Does not allow electricity to pass through)
- Some metals are magnetic (See magnetism)
- Metals are malleable, they can be molded into shape.
- As well as electrical conductors and insulators, there are thermal conductors and insulators. When we use a saucepan we don’t want to burn our hands on them so we make the handles out of materials that won’t get hot so quickly like wood or plastic.
- Thermal Insulators don’t allow heat to pass through them easily. We want the food in the saucepan to get hot quickly so we make the saucepan out of metal, which is a good conductor of heat, it allows heat to pass through it easily.
- Thermal conductors, allow heat to pass through them quickly