Gen.

Physics 2

Resistivity and Conductivity

of Materials
Vocabulary Word….
2. Which refers to the motion of charges from one
place to another?
a. Current
b. Electricity
c. Power
d. Voltage
The electrical resistivity of a conductor material is
measured by how strong the material opposes the
flow of an electric current in a circuit path. The
resistivity factor enables the different types of
conductor can be compared to one another at
different specific temperature relative to the
physical properties of the material.
 Materials such as copper and aluminum are known
for their low levels of resistivity thus allowing
electrical current to easily flow through them
making these materials ideal for making electrical
wires and cables. Silver and gold have much low
resistivity values, but for obvious reasons are more
expensive to turn into electrical wires.
 The resistivity of a metallic conductor nearly
always increases with increasing temperature. As
temperature increases, the ions of the conductor
vibrate with greater amplitude, making it more
likely that a moving electron will collide with an
ion. This impedes the drift of electrons through the
conductor and hence reduces the current.
The following are the factors that affect the
resistance (R) of a conductor in ohms.

• The resistivity (ρ) of the material from which the

conductor is made.
• The total length (L) of the conductor.
• The cross-sectional area (A) of the conductor
• The temperature of the conductor.
Both resistance and resistivity describe how difficult it is
to make electrical current flow through a material, but
unlike resistance, resistivity is an intrinsic property. This
means that all pure copper wires (which have not been
subjected to distortion of their crystalline structure etc.),
irrespective of their shape and size, have the same
resistivity, but a long, thin copper wire has a much larger
resistance than a thick, short copper wire. Every material
has its own characteristic resistivity. For example, rubber
has a far larger resistivity than copper.
Where ρ is the resistivity, R is the resistance, l is
the length of the material and A is the area of
cross-section.
 1. Compute the resistivity of the given material
whose resistance is 2 Ω; area of cross-section and
length are 25cm2 and 15 cm respectively
2. The length and area of wire are given as 0.2 m and
0.5 m2 respectively. The resistance of that wire is 3
Ω, calculate the resistivity
Resistance of the material can be computed using
ther formula:
Why resistivity of Because 20 degree Celsius is closer to the
materials measured in temperature that most equipment operates
the given table is at 20
at and at which specific resistance
degree Celsius?
information is most often used.
 Resistance (R) is directly proportional to the
length of the conductor and inversely to its
cross-sectional area. The SI Unit is 1 Ω which is
also equivalent to 1 Volt over 1 Ampere.

1Ω = 1 V/A
 the resistance of a wire is directly
proportional to the length of the wire and
inversely proportional to the cross-sectional
area of the wire. As shown by the equation,
knowing the length, cross-sectional area and
the material that a wire is made of (and thus,
its resistivity) allows one to determine the
resistance of the wire.
Example:

Calculate the total DC resistance of a 100meter

roll of 2.5mm2 copper wire if the resistivity of
copper at 20oC is 1.72 x 10-8 Ω meter
Conductivity / Electrical Conductivity
is the ability of the material to mobilize charges. It is
the opposite of resistivity. It represents a material's
ability to conduct electric current. It is commonly
signified by the Greek letter σ (sigma), κ (kappa)
(especially in electrical engineering) and γ
(gamma) are sometimes used. The SI unit of
electrical conductivity is siemens per metre (S/m).
metals such as copper, aluminum or silver have
very large values of conductance meaning that
they are good conductors.
Conductivity, σ (Greek letter sigma), is the
reciprocal of the resistivity. That is 1/ρ and is
measured in siemens per meter (S/m). Since
electrical conductivity σ = 1/ρ, the previous
expression for electrical resistance, R can be
rewritten as:
• A 20meter length of cable has a cross-sectional
area of 1mm2 and a resistance of 5 ohms. Calculate
the conductivity of the cable.
NOTE:
The SI unit of resistivity is ohm-meter (Ω·m). Since
conductivity = 1 / resistivity, the SI unit of conductivity is
(Ω·m)⁻¹, which is also known as siemens per meter
(S·m⁻¹) or S/m.
Solve the following problems relative to the resistivity
and conductivity. Show yur solution.

• The resistance of a wire of length 10 m is 2 ohm. If

the area of cross section of the wire is 2 × 10–7 m2 ,
determine its (a) resistivity, and (b) conductivity.

2. Calculate the (a) resistivity and the (b)

conductivity of a material that has a length of 15 m
and a cross-sectional area of 5 × 10–8 m2 and a
resistance (R) of 5 Ω.