Conductors and Insulators

Conductors :

Conductors are materials or substances which allow electricity to flow through them. They conduct electricity because that have free electrons which can flow easily inside them from atom to atom. Also conductors allow the transmission of heat or light from one source to another. 

Metals, humans, earth, animals are all conductors. The human body is a good conductor. So it provides a resistance- free path for the current to flow from wire to body. This is the reason we get electric shocks.

Conductors have free or valence electrons which allow current to pass through it easily.

Examples of conductors :

Insulators :

These are the materials or substances which do not allow electricity to pass through them. This happens because they do not have free electrons to flow form one atom to other. These materials also do not allow the conduction of heat or light through them.

Plastic, glass, wood are some of the examples of insulators. This is the reason why electric wires are coated with plastic coating. PVC coating do not allow the electric current to leak   to the surroundings.

Examples :

Both conductors and insulators are important in using electricity. Whenever we want to make a circuit to use electric current in some way, for example, to light a bulb, run a fan, work an oven or run a washing machine,we use wires made of a metal, such as copper or aluminium, which are good conductors. However, we cannot use bare wires as this would be dangerous. A bare wire carrying current can give you an electric shock. Therefore, wires are always coated with an insulating material, such as plastic. You would also have noticed that the outer coverings of switches, regulators of fans, plugs, sockets, etc. are made of an insulating material, such as plastic or bakelite. This saves you from getting electric shocks.