Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: H2O

Jim Green asked:

A college physics student asks the following question:

How can water be both a good thermal insulator and a good electrical
conductor?

How would the list answer this?

I would say speculate that pure water is a dielectric and
conductivity is usually due to massive ions, not to free
electrons, as in metals. Ions are not as effective as free
electrons to conduct ****.

What name should I use for this stuff which is being
conducted?

The linguistic tyranny pops up again; I did not say
"transferred", only "conducted". Is this OK, Jim?