Why is silver the best conductive metal?

Answer 1

Silver is not the best conductor. It is a very good conductor, but not as good as gold. Both metals allow easy movement of electrons. Gold has an advantage in that it will not corrode except under the most extreme conditions.

Answer 2

It may or may not be the best, depending on the application. One good characteristic that makes silver desirable though is that silver oxide is conductive. If a copper or aluminum connection corrodes (oxidizes), the resistance goes up, the connection gets hot, and can fail. This is because copper and aluminum oxides are not conductive. Since silver oxide is still conductive, an oxidized connection is not as serious a problem.

Answer 3

Silver is the best known conductor, but in an oxygen rich environment it tarnishes. Silver is used in specialized equipment, such as satellites, and as a thin plating to mitigate skin effect losses at high frequencies. In the Lunar outdoors, (in a vacuum where it can't tarnish), silver would be a marginally better, if heavier, conductor than copper, and a way better, but much heavier, conductor than aluminum. Silver is not known to be available on the Moon. Taken from: http://www.lunarpedia.org/index.php?title=Electrical_Conductors

Answer 4

No, but it is very good. Silver is often used because of the best conducting metals, like silver, gold, and platinum, silver is the least expensive, and it resists oxidation that some lesser metals experience, like copper.

Answer 5

It's metal so it's a good conductor.

Metals are good conductors because the particles in them are close together. This is because when part of a material is heated, the heat energy causes the particles in the heated part of it to vibrate. This vibration happens in all materials, but in metals the particles are close together so the vibration of heat energy transfers from one end of the metal to the other.

This is why metal (such as silver) is a good conductor of heat.

BTW, I am not a mega-nerd for knowing this - we were taught it in science class today.

Answer 6

silver is the best conductor since it's Conductivity = 6.3e7/ohm-m which is the highest of any metal.

Answer 7

Outer electrons are very loosely held and can be easily 'pushed' along the silver surface. That is what conductivity is.

Answer 8

Silver is a better conductor of electricity than copper.