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Conductors and Insulators
Electricity is picky about the way it travels! It flows easily through some materials, but gets
congested in other materials. Look at the electronic devices around you and consider the types of
materials that are surrounding these devices. Some of the materials you see enable the electricity to flow,
while others prevent the electricity from shocking you! Can you figure out which materials do what?
The conductor of a train is responsible for ensuring that the trcun gets where it needs to go.
Conductors of electricity have the same purpose! They enable eecIricity to flow and ciet where it needs to
go. Conductors of electricity are materials tnat allow electricity to flow througn them easily. When
electricrty reaches a conductor, it passes right through the material and travels into anything else that the
conductor is touching. Conductors help keep electricity flowing by transferring it around. Metal and wafer
both make excellent conductors. which is why the’ires that are used in homes are typically made of
metal. Did you know that there are electrical circuits made of metal wire throughout your house?
Some materials are not as helpful as conductors in passing electricity around. These materials are
called insulators. Insulators of electricity slow down or completely block the transfer of electric energy.
Wood, glass, and plastic are all examples of insulators because they don’t allow electricity to move easily
through them. Consider the telephone poles you have seen on the sia’e of the road. The pole itself is maae
out of wood, but the wires that run along the tap of the pole are metal. Because metal is a conductor of
electricity, the eiecfrical power is able to flow through the wires very easily. Fortunately, the wooden pole
prevents the electricity from running down to the ground and going to waste or shocking people because
it is an insulator, Look at the charger for your phone or laptop. You aren’t able to see any of the metal wires
in the cord because they’re coated in plastic. Plastic insulates electric energy and ensures that it stays
contained within the wire,
Conductors and insulators are both essential to the flow of electricity. Do you know what makes
something an insulator and what makes something a conductor? As you learned when you read about
matter, all things are made out of tiny particles called atoms. Atoms are way too miniscule to see with your
eyes, but we know from looking through microscopes that all atoms are surrounded by electrons. Pretend
for a moment that an atom is like a merry-go-round. The electrons that surround the atom are like the
animal carts that spin around and around the merry-go-round. Now think about a merry-go-round with
carts that could be removed and rolled off onto other merry-go-rounds nearby. This is what electrons are
like inside conductors of electricity. Electrons move freely in conductors, which is how electricity is able to
flow freely through these types of materials. Insulators, on the other hand, are materials with electrons that
aren’t able to move freely. Think about a merry-go-round with carts that are cemented and nailed to the
middle of the merry-go-round. Electrons that aren’t able to move freely prevent electricity from flowing
through the material.
Some materials, called conductors, allow electricity to flow through them easily, while other
materials called insulators prevent electricity from flowing through them. Both are important to the flow of
electricity because conductors enable electricity to flow quickly and easily while insulators protect the
conductors and keep electricity from going where it doesn’t need to go.
FAST FACT: What would happen if you put on insulator (like a cotton
ball) in the middle of an electrical circuit? If you said the electricity
would stop flowing, you were right! Placing an insulator inside a circuit
stops the flow of electricity and prevents
Symbol
Meaning
electrical energy from getting to the rest
of the circuit.
+
Middle of the atom
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Word count: 648
Lexile: 1O1OL
GRL: W
Electrons floating
©The Sweetest Thing
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