11.6: Conductors
- Page ID
- 470928
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Conductors are substances that conduct charge, which is typically electrons, although ions can also function as conductors within a circuit.
- Have mobile charge particles, typically electrons
- May be ions
- Metals make good conductors
- weakly held valence electrons
- copper is a common metallic conductor
- form wires
- stranded
- solid core
- Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs)
- can result in very small circuits
Wire Conductors
- Resistance goes up as length increases
- Resistance goes up as diameter decreases
- Resistance depends on Materials
- Connections often increase resistance
- dissimilar metals can react
- nonconducting ionic compounds (typically oxides) can form
- loose connections can increase resistance
Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Color coded solid core and standed wires. (Belford cc 0.0)
AWG Gauge
American Standard Wire Gauge - The higher the number the thinner the wire
Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): AWG for non-ferrous metals. (BC Industry Training Authority, CC-BY-NC-SA)
| AWG | Diameter (in) | Diameter (mm) | Resistance/length (mΩ/m) | Resistance/length (mΩ/ft) |
| 0000 (4/0) | 0.4600 | 11.684 | 0.1608 | 0.04901 |
| 00 (2/0) | 0.3648 | 9.266 | 0.2557 | 0.07793 |
| 0 (1/0) | 0.3249 | 8.251 | 0.3224 | 0.09827 |
| 2 | 0.2576 | 6.544 | 0.5127 | 0.1563 |
| 4 | 0.2043 | 5.189 | 0.8152 | 0.2485 |
| 6 | 0.1620 | 4.115 | 1.296 | 0.3951 |
| 8 | 0.1285 | 3.264 | 2.061 | 0.6282 |
| 10 | 0.1019 | 2.588 | 3.277 | 0.9989 |
| 12 | 0.0808 | 2.053 | 5.211 | 1.588 |
| 14 | 0.0641 | 1.628 | 8.286 | 2.525 |
| 16 | 0.0508 | 1.291 | 13.17 | 4.016 |
| 18 | 0.0403 | 1.024 | 20.95 | 6.385 |
| 20 | 0.0320 | 0.812 | 33.31 | 10.15 |
| 22 | 0.0253 | 0.644 5 | 52.96 | 16.14 |
| 24 | 0.0201 | 0.511 | 84.22 | 25.67 |
| 26 | 0.0159 | 0.405 | 133.9 | 40.81 |
| 32 | 0.00795 | 0.202 | 538.3 | 164.1 |
| 40 | 0.00314 | 0.0799 | 3441 | 1049 |
Stranded vs. Solid Wires
- Solid wires
- not as flexible
- preferred if flexibility is not needed
- Stranded wires
- flexible
- need connectors to plug into breadboards
- connectors often become loose and cause problems
Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\): Examples of common solid and stranded wires used in bread boarding. (Belford CC-BY)