Electrical resistivity and conductivity - Quiz
Electrical resistivity and conductivity
  • 1. What allows metals to conduct electric current?
A) Chemical reactions within the lattice
B) The movement of protons
C) A positive ionic lattice
D) A sea of dissociable electrons
  • 2. What is the typical magnitude of electron drift velocity in metals?
A) Kilometres per second
B) Metres per second
C) Metres per hour
D) Centimetres per year
  • 3. What is the primary cause for the rapid propagation of electric energy along a wire?
A) High velocity of electrons
B) Direct physical contact between electrons
C) Propagation of an electromagnetic field
D) Mechanical momentum transfer
  • 4. In non-quantum mechanical models, what do electrons behave like as they travel through a lattice?
A) Particles
B) Waves
C) Gas molecules
D) Static charges
  • 5. What causes resistance in the wave-like electron model of metals?
A) The lack of electrons
B) The absence of a lattice
C) Interference of electron waves
D) High voltage potential
  • 6. What effect does increased temperature have on a crystal lattice?
A) Increases electron drift velocity
B) Removes the ionic lattice
C) Decreases lattice vibrations
D) Increases lattice vibrations
  • 7. Why does metal purity affect electrical resistance?
A) Impurities stop the electromagnetic field
B) Impurity ions block electrons physically
C) Impurities decrease the number of electrons
D) Different ions act as irregularities
  • 8. What happens to conductivity when a pure metal melts?
A) It becomes zero
B) It increases significantly
C) It stays exactly the same
D) It decreases slightly
  • 9. What remains in a metal after it melts?
A) Absolute zero vibrations
B) Long range crystalline order
C) Short range order
D) No crystalline structure
  • 10. What describes the lattice of a metal?
A) A negative ionic lattice
B) A positive ionic lattice
C) An electron-only lattice
D) A non-conductive lattice
  • 11. Compared to semiconductors, how is the electrical resistance of metals categorized?
A) Significantly smaller
B) Significantly larger
C) Variable but usually higher
D) Exactly the same
  • 12. What facilitates the drift of electrons towards the positive terminal?
A) The cooling of the metal
B) The change in electron mass
C) The decrease in lattice purity
D) An applied electric field
  • 13. Why is current density large even if drift velocity is slow?
A) Due to the lack of resistance in the wire
B) Due to the sheer number of moving electrons
C) Due to the electromagnetic field speed
D) Due to the high mass of the electrons
  • 14. What determines the coherence between waves diffracted by adjacent ions in molten metals?
A) The total absence of electron movement
B) The rapid loss of short range order
C) The increase in crystal lattice symmetry
D) Strong correlation between ion positions
  • 15. What principle dictates that only one electron can exist in a specific state?
A) Fermi-Dirac statistics.
B) Pauli exclusion principle.
C) Heisenberg uncertainty principle.
D) Ohm's law.
  • 16. What is the name of the characteristic energy level up to which electrons fill the band structure?
A) Conduction threshold.
B) Band gap.
C) Fermi level.
D) Valence level.
  • 17. Why are electrons near or above the Fermi level free to move?
A) They can easily jump among partially occupied states.
B) They have higher energy than the nucleus.
C) They have zero mass.
D) They are not bound by the Pauli exclusion principle.
  • 18. What characterizes the low energy states in a material?
A) They are always forbidden.
B) They are completely filled.
C) They are completely empty.
D) They contain the Fermi level.
  • 19. Where does the Fermi level fall in insulators and semiconductors?
A) Within a partially filled band.
B) At the very bottom of the lowest band.
C) Within a band gap.
D) At the highest possible energy level.
  • 20. Why is the electronic conductivity of insulators very low?
A) The material has no electron bands.
B) There are no available states near the Fermi level.
C) The electrons are too heavy to move.
D) The Fermi level is too high.
  • 21. Which material has a large resistivity and small conductivity?
A) Silver
B) Gold
C) Rubber
D) Copper
  • 22. What term describes materials with different properties in different directions?
A) Anisotropic
B) Homogeneous
C) Amorphous
D) Isotropic
  • 23. What mathematical structure represents resistivity in anisotropic cases?
A) A scalar
B) A vector
C) A rank-2 tensor
D) A scalar field
  • 24. In the Hall effect, what condition leads to the simplification of the relationship between resistivity and conductivity?
A) Total lack of current flow
B) Perfectly parallel alignment of all fields
C) Absence of magnetic fields
D) Rotational invariance about the z-axis
  • 25. What does the Einstein notation symbol 'i' represent in the equation Ei = ρijJj?
A) The imaginary unit
B) A component index
C) The material density
D) The current constant
  • 26. Which material has a small resistivity and large conductivity?
A) Copper
B) Rubber
C) Glass
D) Wood
  • 27. What is the SI unit for electrical resistivity?
A) siemens per metre (S/m)
B) siemens
C) ohms
D) ohm-metre (Ω⋅m)
  • 28. Which Greek letter is commonly used to represent electrical resistivity?
A) κ (kappa)
B) σ (sigma)
C) γ (gamma)
D) ρ (rho)
  • 29. Which law describes the relationship R = ρℓ/A?
A) Faraday's law
B) Pouillet's law
C) Ohm's law
D) Coulomb's law
  • 30. How does cross-sectional area affect the resistance of a conductor?
A) Directly proportional
B) Exponentially proportional
C) It has no effect
D) Inversely proportional
  • 31. Which symbols can be used to signify electrical conductivity?
A) n, p, or q
B) Ω, S, or A
C) σ, κ, or γ
D) ρ, R, or C
  • 32. What is the resistance of an intrinsic semiconductor at absolute zero temperature?
A) Very low
B) Zero
C) Infinite
D) Moderate
  • 33. What is the primary effect of dopant atoms in extrinsic semiconductors?
A) Increase the resistance
B) Increase majority charge carrier concentration
C) Eliminate all holes
D) Decrease the band gap width
  • 34. How does increasing dopant density affect the resistance of a semiconductor?
A) Does not affect resistance
B) Makes resistance infinite
C) Reduces resistance
D) Increases resistance
  • 35. What dominates carrier concentration at very high temperatures in semiconductors?
A) Thermally generated carriers
B) Metal impurities
C) Dopant atoms
D) Conduction band electrons only
  • 36. What kind of substance is used for conduction in ionic liquids beyond solvated ions?
A) Solid polymers
B) Metallic copper
C) Distilled water
D) Molten salts
  • 37. In the formula N = αN0, what does α represent?
A) Module of ion charge
B) Dissociation coefficient
C) Mobility of ions
D) Critical temperature
  • 38. What limits the decrease of resistance in a normal conductor near absolute zero?
A) Impurities and defects
B) Ion dissociation
C) Magnetic vortices
D) High-temperature superconductivity
  • 39. Which of the following describes the resistance of a type II superconductor when magnetic vortices are frozen?
A) Extremely low but nonzero
B) Truly zero
C) Variable based on voltage
D) Moderate
  • 40. What is the relationship between water purity and electrical conductivity?
A) Purity increases the resistivity of water
B) The purer the water, the lower the conductivity
C) The purer the water, the higher the conductivity
D) Purity has no effect on conductivity
  • 41. How are plasmas characterized in terms of electrical conduction?
A) Very poor conductors
B) Electrical insulators
C) Very good conductors
D) Semiconductors
  • 42. What causes the electric fields in plasmas to be very small?
A) High resistivity
B) The presence of glass
C) Good electrical conductivity
D) Lack of charge carriers
  • 43. At what temperature are the resistivity and conductivity values in the table provided?
A) 100 °C
B) 25 °C
C) 0 °C
D) 20 °C
  • 44. Which metal is noted for having extremely low resistivity and high conductivity?
A) Gold
B) Copper
C) Silver
D) Aluminum
  • 45. What factor significantly impacts the insulating properties of wood?
A) The type of wood species
B) Moisture content
C) The length of the wood
D) The age of the tree
  • 46. By approximately what factor is damp wood a worse insulator than oven-dry wood?
A) At least 1020
B) At least 102
C) At least 1010
D) At least 105
  • 47. What can happen to dry wood when subjected to extremely high voltage?
A) Increased resistance
B) Immediate combustion
C) Molecular hardening
D) Insulation breakdown
  • 48. What is the linear approximation for electrical resistivity used for?
A) When temperature does not vary too much
B) When absolute zero is reached
C) When measuring superconductors
D) When temperature varies over a large range
  • 49. What formula is used to approximate the temperature dependence of resistivity in metals?
A) Matthiessen's rule
B) Bloch–Grüneisen formula
C) Ohm's law
D) Debye law
  • 50. Which value in the Bloch–Grüneisen formula is determined by electron velocity and electron density?
A) x
B) A
C) T
D) n
  • 51. What phenomenon involves the loss of all electrical resistivity at low temperatures?
A) Fermi surface inversion
B) Phonon coupling
C) Superconductivity
D) Defect scattering
  • 52. Who discovered superconductivity in 1911?
A) Felix Bloch
B) Eduard Grüneisen
C) Augustus Matthiessen
D) Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
  • 53. What mathematical model does a typical intrinsic semiconductor follow for resistivity temperature dependence?
A) Arrhenius model
B) Kondo insulator model
C) Wiedemann–Franz law
D) Steinhart–Hart linear model
  • 54. For what application is the Steinhart–Hart equation typically used?
A) Calculating residual resistivity
B) Defining the Boltzmann constant
C) Calibrating thermistors
D) Measuring quantum tunneling rates
  • 55. In the variable range hopping formula, what does the exponent 'n' represent?
A) The total number of localized sites
B) The electron charge
C) A value depending on system dimensionality
D) The temperature scale constant
  • 56. Which term in the Kondo insulator formula represents the Fermi liquid contribution?
A) cmln(μT)
B) aT2
C) ρ0
D) bT5
  • 57. In the Wiedemann–Franz law, what does 'k' represent?
A) Thermal conductivity
B) Electron charge
C) Boltzmann constant
D) Electric conductivity
  • 58. What is the complex quantity used to replace resistivity in dielectric spectroscopy?
A) Permittivity
B) Impedivity
C) Reactivity
D) Admittivity
  • 59. What is the imaginary component of impedivity called?
A) Susceptivity
B) Resistivity
C) Reactivity
D) Conductivity
  • 60. What is the complex quantity used to replace conductivity in alternating fields?
A) Reactance
B) Admittivity
C) Impedivity
D) Permittivity
  • 61. What is the imaginary component of admittivity called?
A) Reactivity
B) Impedance
C) Susceptivity
D) Resistivity
  • 62. What method is mentioned for analyzing inhomogeneous materials like spreading resistance profiling?
A) Linear regression
B) Ohm's Law only
C) Finite element analysis
D) Simple algebraic formulas
  • 63. Which equations must be used for E and J when dealing with complex geometries?
A) R = rho * l / A
B) J(r) = sigma(r)E(r)
C) I = V / R
D) E = I * R
  • 64. Which of the following accompanies the vector field equation for E and J to solve for complex geometries?
A) The simple resistivity formula
B) The continuity equation
C) The power dissipation formula
D) The Kirchhoff current law
  • 65. What besides conductivity is used in the alternative description of AC response?
A) Susceptivity
B) Permittivity
C) Impedivity
D) Reactivity
  • 66. What method did John Walsh use to create a vacuum?
A) Cooling gases to near absolute zero
B) Mechanical air pumps
C) Chemical oxygen removal
D) Boiled mercury in a Torricellian tube
  • 67. In what year was Ohm's law published?
A) 1825
B) 1900
C) 1827
D) 1774
  • 68. When was Barlow's law published?
A) 1827
B) 1774
C) 1900
D) 1825
  • 69. What is an important metric for applications where weight is critical?
A) Melting point of the conductor
B) Resistivity-density product
C) Absolute resistivity
D) Total cost of material
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