Willie2 via EV wrote:
On 04/14/2016 03:56 AM, EVDL Administrator via EV wrote:
On 14 Apr 2016 at 0:06, brucedp5 via EV wrote:
Copper remains the best electrical conductor available
Nope, that would be silver.
Now, if you consider cost-effectiveness, that's another matter. But
that's
not what the man said.
What he said (or was quoted as saying):
“Copper remains the best electrical conductor available and this will be
more and more important in a world where energy efficiency is a priority,”
"Available" can easily be taken to mean "feasible in cost". In that
sense, super conductors are not available just as silver is not. "Best"
can also be taken to mean "least costly".
Which brings to mind aluminum. As I understand, aluminum is "better"
than copper in that it moves more power with lower weight and cost.
Indeed, it gets complicated when you start defining "best" as
"cheapest". With that criteria, even steel could be considered the
"best" conductor, since it is so much cheaper than copper aluminum that
its ohms per dollar is better.
Notice that automobiles and trucks routinely use the steel car body as
their electrical ground return. It's also very common to find steel lead
wires in electrical components (resistors, capacitors, ICs, terminals)
-- you can pick them up with a magnet!
Since steel has around 4 times the resistance, you need about 4 times
more of it to do the same job. That's OK... it's 1/10th the price. :-)
--
A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is
a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as
possible. There are no prima donnas in engineering. -- Freeman Dyson
--
Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, www.sunrise-ev.com
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