Metals carry electricity

Have you watched an electrician at work? The screwdriver has a plastic handle, and they often wear rubber gloves and shoes. Why?

Activity 4.4 uses the tester from the electricity chapter. Test: aluminium foil, an iron nail, a lump of sulfur, a copper wire, coal, dry wood, a stone, a rubber eraser, a nylon rope. Predict first, then try.

The bulb glows for aluminium, iron and copper, and stays dark for sulfur, coal, wood, stone, the eraser and the nylon rope. Every material that made it glow is a metal.

Things that let electricity through easily are good conductors of electricity. Things that do not are poor conductors. Plastic and rubber are poor conductors, so the screwdriver handle and the gloves keep the electrician safe from shocks.

One word to keep straight: insulator is the word we usually use for electricity. For heat we say poor conductor of heat.

So far: metals are generally hard, lustrous, malleable, ductile, sonorous, and good conductors of heat and electricity.