From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Electrical conductivity is a measure of how well a material accommodates the transport of electric charge. Conductance is an electrical phenomenon where a material contains movable particles of electricity. When a difference of electrical potential is placed across a conductor, its movable charges flow, and an electric current appears.
A conductor such as a metal has high conductivity, and an insulator like glass, or the vacuum, has low conductivity. A semiconductor has a conductivity that may vary with conditions, such as exposure of the material to certain frequencies of light.
Electrical conductivity is the reciprocal of electrical resistivity (1/[ohm-cm]). Its SI derived unit is the siemens (named after Werner von Siemens) per meter (A2s3m-3kg-1). It is the ratio of the current density to the electric field strength. This applies also to the electrolytic conductivity of a fluid.
For a discussion of the physical origin of electrical conductivity, see electrical conduction.
