Conductors can be classified as substances that allow heat or electricity to easily pass through them.
Metals are good conductors of both heat and electricity due to the arrangement of metal atoms in solid form.
The nuclei are tightly packed so that if one atom becomes excited (hot!) then it will vibrate more swiftly and knock the one(s) next to it 'causing them to move also and they will knock the one(s) next to them and so on. Temperature is really a measure of the kinetic energy of particles. The more the particles are moving, the higher their temperature and so the hotter we percieve them to be. Hence as the motion is passed from one atom to the next the heat is "conducted" throughout the metal.
Metals are good electrical conductors because they normally have "free moving" valence electrons. Because their electrons are free to move from metal atom to metal atom they are free to conduct electricity. Electricity *is* the movement of charge particles (electrons are negatively charged particles, ions are also charged particles, that's why salt water conducts electricity) after all.
Conductors are also the people who stand in front of choirs and orchestras and keep them all working together. They are also called Musical Directors. They are amazing to watch.
They are right to be called conductors, because the music on the page is channelled by them into a wonderful, wonderful sound. If you had the same choir and had them perform a song they knew with no conductor, a poor conductor and a good conductor; each performance would be different. Good conductors look like coiled springs of energy. Their movements are a violent dance, their hands *beating* out the rhythm. Conductors that are not as good still keep time, still give direction, but without that brutally exact timing. Their arms and hands are loose, sometimes even flowing. It just doesn't get across the precise instruction that a large group of people need if they are to work together. In NCEA conducting is a performance music skill, like singing, clarinet or piano. That is good.
Point of Fashion: Shimmery pants
Current Obsession: Hot drinks