Copper has been around for over 5000 years. Today copper is used from a variety of products including space rockets, gutters for houses, much more. Copper is also the best low cost conductor of electricity. Because of this the electrical industry uses a lot of copper as a form of wire. Copper wire is mostly used for homes factories and offices. Copper contains many different properties.
The physical characteristics of copper make it a valuable industrial material. Some of these characteristics include that it is malleable, conducts electricity, and resistant to corrosion. Copper is probably best known for its ability to conduct electricity. Silver is the only batter conductor but is often too expensive for mainstream use. The best conductor of electricity is pure copper as even the smallest impurities may affect its conductivity.
Malleability is a major component of copper. Pure copper is a highly malleable meaning it is easy to shape. This comes in handy for industrial use. Long copper also does not cracked or break when hammered pressed respond in two unusual shapes.
Copper also possesses great ductility, meaning the ability to be drawn into thin wires without breaking. This also comes in handy during the industrial use of copper. A piece of copper could become a wire more than 20,000,000 times longer than the bar used to make it.
Copper’s resistance to corrosion is another main reason that is used in industrial facilities. Copper will not rust and after long exposure copper becomes courted with a green film called patina, which protects the copper against further corrosion.
Copper is actually fairly easy to obtain. There are many sources of copper the route the world and the United States. Over 6 million tons of copper her mind each year throughout the world making it very plentiful. Much of the world’s copper comes from the mountain ranges by Alaska to the tip of South America. The United States minds about world’s copper. Despite this the United States actually uses more copper that it mines in needs to import large amounts from other countries such as cannot and Peru. About half the copper mind in the United States comes on Arizona, and the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan is one of the few remaining sources of native copper. Cannot also minds about 10% of the world’s copper with most of it coming from Ontario and Quebec. Chile, Russia, and other countries are also import and copper producers.
Although Coppers best known use is for the United States penny, this may not be much longer as it actually costs more to produce a penny then the penny is worth. Only time will tell what will happen to the copper industry and the copper penny.
