Sandbox Discussions

[Unbitwise]

"Zinc isn't conductive by itself"? Wot?

[DanielH]

It has a resistivity of 59 nΩ·m according to Wikipedia, whereas copper’s is 16.78 nΩ·m (also Wikipedia), making copper more than three times a better conductor. Iron seems to be about 100, so zinc is almost twice as good a conductor as just iron.

Maybe that table isn’t about pure zinc, but I think it is.

[ErinFlight]

Huh.
So, I'd remembered (incorrectly?) that when zinc was used in a component of another conductor, the amount of conductivity was actually decreased more than just by the amount of zinc added.

Zinc isn't typically used as a conductor by itself I think?, but that might be because it's so brittle?
Hmm, well Jane can definitely be wrong. I did word it badly too. I meant to say zinc isn't typically used as a conductor by itself (is this true? anyone?)


I'm not sure if zinc's typical conductivity ranking (in terms of other metals) was for zinc by itself or zinc as a component of another alloy.
Most of the charts I looked at emphasized pure gold and pure silver, but didn't say the zinc was pure.

Anyone understand this better than me?

[Unbitwise]

Understanding-heavily-supplemented-by-Wikipedia: Zinc is commonly used as an anode, that is to say as part of an electrochemical system such as a battery or sacrificial anode, because it has a highly negative electrode potential, which means that it's highly likely to corrode. It's also brittle, and will passivate when exposed to air (which forms a non-conductive surface layer, similarly to aluminum).

In other words, using zinc for wiring is probably not what you want to do. But that's not at all the same as not being conductive.

[ErinFlight]

Thank you! That's really helpful.
I'll probably include zinc as being mildly effective on it's own then if the opportunity comes up.

[PlainDealingVillain]

The extra-shady characters in the Old Republic boxes are fun to watch.

[Ezra]

So "-trajectory. agreement.-" finished. That sure was an ending.

[Alicorn]

And more interesting than the conductivity of zinc!

[ErinFlight]

I mean I could have spent more time reading up on the conductivity of various metals, but I also could've read various things on the internet.
The not-conductivity won.

no-sleep is awesome, and I am now on the lookout for random staircases in the woods.

[DanielH]

Is that last paragraph in reference to a real life lack of sleep leading to hallucination, or a thread I missed? Or something else, that’s also an option.