the.com/conductance
resistance's optimistic twin, measuring how eagerly electrons say yes instead of no
means A measure of how easily electric current flows through a material — the reciprocal of resistance, expressed in siemens.
from From Latin 'conducere,' to lead or bring together (con-, 'together,' plus 'ducere,' 'to lead' — the same root that gives us 'conduct' and 'duke'). 'Conductor' for a current-carrying material came first in the 18th century; 'conductance' as its measurable quantity followed in the 19th as electrical science formalized. Its unit, the siemens, honors the German engineer Werner von Siemens — and is cheekily the word 'mho' (ohm spelled backwards) turned respectable.
- unit
- the siemens, literally resistance flipped upside down
- old name
- once called the mho, ohm spelled backwards
- quantum limit
- comes in fixed chunks at atomic scales
- biology
- nerve signals fire by opening ion conductance gates
- definition
- reciprocal of resistance, pure mathematical rebellion
siemens unit — electrical conductance measurement named after werner von siemens, standard si unit since 1971
graphene sheet conductance — single layer of carbon atoms shows conductance of 4e² per square, nobel prize 2010
squid giant axon — squid nerve fiber studied by hodgkin and huxley to measure ion channel conductance, 1952