Re: H2O

[Doug Craigen <dcc@ESCAPE.CA>]

Jim Green wrote:
> A college physics student asks the following question:
>
> > How can water be both a good thermal insulator and a good electrical
> > conductor?
>
> How would the list answer this?

I would have thought water is a mediocre thermal insulator or electrical
insulator.  Can some numbers be provided to check the facts upon which
the question is based?  One obvious comment however is that while the
electrical and part of the thermal conductivity of metals is based on
movement of electrons, in water we would be dealing with ions which are
much less mobile.