Hi,

 

I was wondering if it is possible to relate the position of an element on the periodic table to the electrical resistance in a wire composed of that element.

 

I have found lots of information on factors affecting resistance, but it's all very basic stuff about length, cross sectional area etc. I would like to know what microscopic properties of wires affect its resistance (e.g. number of valence electrons, atomic mass) and how these properties affect the resistance. Would it be possible to conduct an experiment using wires of different materials to see the impact of these different properties?

 

Thanks

Hi,

 

I was wondering if it is possible to relate the position of an element on the periodic table to the electrical resistance in a wire composed of that element.

 

I have found lots of information on factors affecting resistance, but it's all very basic stuff about length, cross sectional area etc. I would like to know what microscopic properties of wires affect its resistance (e.g. number of valence electrons, atomic mass) and how these properties affect the resistance. Would it be possible to conduct an experiment using wires of different materials to see the impact of these different properties?

 

Thanks

 

You'll most likely find that resistance is affected mostly by valence electrons, only slightly by other electrons, and not at all by atomic mass. This is because the only parts of the atom involved in conducting electricity is the valence shell. As such you'll probably find a periodic trend by block.

The best conductor is silver and it's more or less in the middle of the table. The explanations of conductivity of metals tend to be rather complex.