CONDUCTIVITY OF METALS:
1. What are the two most important properties of metals?
2. What material has the highest electrical Conductivity?
3. What material has the second highest conductivity?
4. Enumerate the metals that have a lower conductivity which lies between ideal metals and
insulators.
5. Enumerate the four factors that affect the resistivity of the materials.
6. What are the two types of motion of electrons?
7. What do you call to the velocity of the electrons?
8. It is the average magnitude of the proportionality factor?
9. How the atoms change energy?
10. Enumerate the three levels of energy?
ANSWER KEY:
1. High Thermal and Electrical Conductivities
2. Silver
3. Copper
4. As, Sb, Bi, Sn, Hg
5. Temperature, Alloying, Cold Work, Age Hardening
6. Random motion; Directed Motion
7. Drift Velocity
8. Mobility
9. a change occurs when one electron passes from one quantum states to another.
10. Electron Cloud Energy Level; Vibrational Energy Level; Rotational Energy Level.
ELECTRONS EMISSION:
1. Enumerate the four types of electron emissions?
2. It is a process of evaporation which takes place when some of the conduction electrons in the
cathode have enough kinetic energy to escape through its surface?
3. It involves the interaction of light with electrons showing that light has quantum qualities. In
photoelectric emission, a beam of light of frequency, v interacts with the electrons only in
discrete quantities of energy, hv where h is Planck’s constant?
4. It occurs when the direction of the applied electric field is such that it attracts electrons out of
the metal?
ANSWER KEY
1. Thermionic Emission; Photoelectric emission; Field Emission; Secondary Emission.
2. Thermionic emission
3. Photoelectric emission
4. Field Emission
CONDUCTING METALS:
1. As the temperature is increased there is a greater thermal motion of the atoms which
decreasesthe regularity in the atom spacings with a consequent decrease in the mobility of the
electrons. The resistivity of most metals therefore increase with an ………. in the temperature.
2. Enumerate the 9 common conducting materials.
3. It is used for the winding of electrical machine.
4. High purity copper is obtained by………?
5. What material seriously reduce the conductivity of copper?
6. What happen to the conductivity of copper when it is hard drawn into wires for use in
machines?
7. Hard drawn copper because of its increased mechanical strength compared with annealed
copper is usually used as a conductor in?
8. What material increases the mechanical strength of copper without affecting its conductivity
adversely?
9. Copper conductors having a steel core are also employed for?
10. For ordinary insulated stranded cables ………..is almost universally employed. In such cables the
conductor stands are tinned in order to protect the copper from the Sulphur of the V.I.R. The
tinning process assists in soldering and operations.
11. What element is employed in machine windings because it is easily workable without any
likelihood of fracture. Further, it can be soldered easily thus simplifying the jointing operation?
12. What type of conductors are particularly suitable for operations in very high ambient
temperatures?
13. What type of aluminum conductors is extensively being used for long span transmission lines?
14. In the commercial form aluminum is obtainable with a purity of about 99% but it is generally
alloyed with small quantities of ……., …….., ………, or ……….. to improve its hardness and strength.
15. It has the highest melting point among metals?
16. It is employed as conductor rail in traction on account of its cheapness and rigidity?
17. They are generally used for earth conductor in low voltage distribution system may also be used
for the phase conductors in rural areas where cheapness is the main consideration?
18. This material is used extensively for making the electrodes of thermionic valves, and sparking
plugs. It is also, used to form the positive plate of the Nife accumulator which has distinct
advantages over the ordinary lead acid accumulator?
19. This material has two important electrical applications. It is used to form(a) cable sheaths and
(b) the plates of lead acid accumulator. Lead sheaths are required to protect the insulation of
the cable from effects of moisture?
20. They are used for making resistors for laboratory instruments and for laboratory standards
where a high constancy of resistance is desirable. They are also used for making heater and
thermo-couple elements?
21. Enumerate the most important alloy.
ANSWER KEY:
1. Increase
2. Copper; Aluminum; Tungsten; Carbon and Graphite; Iron and Steel; Nickel; Lead; Tin; Alloys
3. Pure Annealed Copper
4. Electrolytic Refining
5. Traces (0.1%) of iron, silicon or phosphorous
6. Decreases
7. conductors in low voltage overhead distribution lines.
8. Cadmium
9. long span transmission lines,
10. V.I.R insulation
11. Copper
12. Aluminum
13. steel reinforced aluminum conductor (A.C.S.R.)
14. copper, zinc, nickel or magnesium
15. Tungsten
16. Steel
17. Galvanized steel and iron wires
18. Nickel
19. Lead
20. Alloy materials
21. a. Constantan or Eureka[(55-60%) Cu, (45-40%) Ni] b. German silver (an alloy of Cu,Zn and
Ni) c. Manganin (86% Cu, 2% Ni , 12% Mn) d. Nichrome (60% Ni, 15% Cr, 24% Fe)
CONTACT MATERIALS:
1. Enumerate the elements that are acceptable make and break contact materials.
2. What element is the most important contact material?
3. What element when added to silver reduces the cost of the contact material?
4. What element when combine to silver results in a contact material having the advantages of the
individual metal?
5. What do you called to the conductors that doesn’t obey the ohm’s law?
6. Enumerate the three kinds of thermoelectric effect.
7. If a piece of metal is made to have a temperature gradient between its two ends, an emf is
observed to exist between those ends. This effect is known as?
8. The thermocouple was discovered by seeback in1822 when he demonstrated that a loop
composed of two dissimilar metals could be made to carry a continuous current simply by
maintaining the two junctions at different temperatures. The magnitude of the current depends
on the resistance of the metals. When the two metals are placed in contact, then a contact
potential equal to the difference in work function of the two metals is established at the
junction. This effect is known as?
9. What do you call to the difference between the escape level and the fermi level?
10. It is the converse effect and the showed that when a current is passed through the junction of
two different metals, heat is absorbed or liberated depending on the direction of the current?
ANSWER KEYS:
1. copper, molybdenum , nickel, palladium, silver and tungsten
2. Silver
3. Copper
4. Tungsten
5. Non-Linear Conductors
6. Thomson Effects, Seeback Effect, Piltier Effects
7. Thomson Effect
8. Seeback effect
9. Work Function
10. Piltier Effect
Introduction; Effect of dielectric on the behaviour of a capacitor
1. What is dielectric/dielectric material?
2. Who named the term dielectric, which means a material with zero electrical
conductivity?
3. What should be applied in dielectric for it can be polarized?
4. Cite some reasons of putting a dielectric material in the capacitor?
5. What are the properties of a good dielectric material?
6. What is most important property of dielectric?
7. What are the three types of dielectric materials?
8. Explain the relationship of capacitance to voltage in applying dielectric?
9. What are the difference between insulator and dielectric material ?
10. What is the common dielectric material used in putting between the spaces of a
capacitor?
ANSWER KEY:
1. A dielectric is an insulating material in which all the electrons are tightly bound to the
nucleus of the atom. There are no free electrons to carry current. A dielectric material is a
substance that is a poor conductor of electricity, but an efficient supporter of electrostatic
field.
2. William Whewell
3. Electric field
4. To increase capacitance and to prevent the touching of metals that leads of no charge to
be stored
5. High resistivity to leakage current.
High dielectric strength
High mechanical strength.
High fire resistance.
Low thermal expansion.
Low dielectric loss.
Low water absorption quality.
High chemical inertness.
6. The important property of a dielectric is its ability to support an electrostatic field while
dissipating minimal energy in the form of heat.
7. Solid Dielectrics, Liquid Dielectrics and Gaseous Dielectrics
8. Capacitance is inversely proportional to voltage. When capacitance increases voltage
decreases, vice versa.
9. Insulator implies low electrical conduction, while dielectric typically means materials
with a high polarizability. The term insulator is generally used to indicate electrical
obstruction while the term dielectric is used to indicate the energy storing capacity of the
material (by means of polarization).
10. Mica
Polarization; The dielectric constant of monoatomic gases
1. What is Polarization?
Ans. Slight relative shift of positive and negative electric charge in opposite
directions within an insulator, or dielectric, induced by an external electric field.
2. When does Dielectric Polarization occurs?
Ans. Dielectric polarization occurs when a dipole moment is formed in an insulating
material because of an externally applied electric field.
3. What are the two types of Dielectric?
Ans. Polar and Nonpolar Dielectric
4. State the difference of Polar and Nonpolar Dielectric.
Ans. Polar Dielectric - Do not have permanent dipole moment, Asymmetric in
shape, they don’t coincide with each other
Nonpolar Dielectric - They have permanent dipole moment, Symmetric in
shape, the centers of both positive as well as negative charges coincide
5. Enumerate at least two examples of a polar dielectric.
Ans. HCl, Ammonia
6. Enumerate at least two examples of a nonpolar dielectric.
Ans. Benzene, Methane, Carbon Dioxide
7. State the two reasons why the distance between two gases should be large enough.
Ans. 1. one neglect interaction between them
2. the individual atom can be studied in dependently
8. What kind of polarization is mostly exhibited in monoatomic gases?
Ans. Electronic Polarization
Frequency dependence of permittivity; dielectric losses
1. __________ is the measure of capacitance that is encountered when forming an
electric field in a particular medium?
Ans: Permittivity
2. ________ is a function of temperature and frequency at which the alternating electric
field varies.
Ans: Dielectric Constant
3. What is the difference between dielectric constant and permittivity?
Ans: Permittivity is often required because of response of a material is a complex
relationship related to the frequency of the applied voltage while Dielectric Constant is
defined as the relative permittivity for a substance or material.
4. Does dielectric constant change with frequency?
Ans: Dielectric Constant decreases with an increase of the frequency.
5. What is the dielectric constant of a perfect conductor?
Ans: Infinite
6. _________ is the loss of energy that goes into heating a dielectric material.
Ans: Dielectric Loss
7. Factors affecting dielectric loss.
Ans: Relaxation Effect and Resonance
8. Oscillating electric field polarize the dielectric which creates a dipole that is also
oscillating, this dipole absorbs and then re-scatters the electric field this effect is
called _______.
Ans: Relaxation Effect
9. The electric field’s frequency resonates with the electronic transitions of the dielectric
which is the dielectric absorbs the energy to perform transaction and the energy will
dissipate this effect is called ________.
Ans: Resonance
10. Dielectric Losses depend on __________ and ____________.
Ans: Frequency and Dielectric Material
Significance of Loss Tangent, Dipolar Relaxation
1. What is dielectric loss?
Answer: It is the decapitation of electromagnetic energy through heat.
2. What is Loss Tangent?
Answer: The loss tangent is the ratio at any particular frequency between the real and
imaginary parts of the impedance of the capacitor. A large loss tangent means you have a
lot of dielectric dissipation.
3. What is the meaning of ESR?
Answer: ESR (equivalent series resistance)
4. What is ESR?
Answer: The sum of all resistor connected in series to the capacitor.
5. What is Xc?
Answer: Capacitive Reactance
6. What is capacitive reactance?
Answer: It is the measure of the opposition of current flow in an AC circuit.
7. What is the formula of capacitive reactance?
Answer:
8. What is the Formula of Loss Tangent?
Answer: 𝐸𝑆𝑅
tan 𝛿 =
−𝑗𝑋𝑐
9. What is the cause of leakage current?
Answer: It is due to the increase of the temperature that speeds up the rate of chemical
reaction.
10. What is Dipolar Relaxation?
Answer: The process, occupying a certain period of time after a change in the applied electric
field, in which the orientation polarization of a substance reaches equilibrium.
Frequency and Temperature dependence of dielectric constant; dielectric properties of
polymers system
1.) It is a quantity measuring the ability of a substance to store electrical energy in an electric
field.
Ans: dielectric constant
2.) At sufficiently _______ the dielectric constant is reduced due to the strong thermal
motion which disturbs the orientation of the dipoles.
Ans: high temperature
3.) Typically, the frequency _______ with decreasing dielectric constant.
Ans: increases
4.) Dielectric constant increases with an increase of the frequency. But this happens only for
a _______ range.
Ans: small temperature
5.) State a situation where the dielectric constant sharply decreases as temperature decreases
Ans: when the temperature is below the freezing point.
6.) The greater the _______ of a material in an electrical field, the greater the dielectric
constant will be
Ans: Polarization
7.) Give two factors in which the dielectric constant is dependent to
Ans: Temperature and Frequency
8.) Give two general classes of polymers according to their distinctive properties
Ans: Non-polar polymers and Polymers containing permanent dipole
Ionic Conductivity on Insulators; Insulating Materials; Ferroelectricity; Piezoelectricity
1. It is the electrical conductivity due to the motion of ions?
Answer: Ionic Conductivity
2. It is an atom with an extra electron or a missing electron?
Answer: Ions
3. What do you call to an ion that has more protons than electrons?
Answer: Cation
4. What do you call to an ion that has more electrons than protons?
Answer: Anion
5. Enumerate the three items of ionic conductivity?
Answer: (1) Carrier Charge (2) Concentration (3) Mobility
6. Name the two types of defects that only take place in the ionic conductivity of most
Crystal molecules?
Answer: (1) Frankel defects (2) Schottky defects
7. When does the ionic conductivity conduction may take place?
Answer: it only takes place when the ion transfer from the occupied site to
unoccupied site
8. What do you call to the defects in molecules where an atom or ion (normally a cation)
leaves its own lattice site vacant and instead occupies a normally vacant site?
Answer: Frankel defects
9. This explains the defects in a molecule when opposite charged ions leaves their lattice
sites creating vacancies?
Answer: Schottky defects
10. It is called to the materials that don’t allow electricity to pass through.
Answer: Insulating Materials
11. The of an insulator fall as the temperature increases.
Answer: Resistance
12. Enumerate the three kinds of breakdown in dielectrics.
Answer: (1) Breakdown in Solid dielectrics (2) breakdown in Liquid dielectric (3)
Breakdown in Gaseous dielectrics
13. Give three common examples of insulating materials.
Answer: (1) Rubber (2) Glass (3) Mica (4) Porcelain (5) Polyvinylchloride (PVC) (6)
Paper and boards (7) Transformer oil