Question

Ductility is the property of a substance that allows it to be easily stretched into a wire. A small piece of silver weighing just one gram, can be drawn into a wire of:
A. Ten feet long
B. Ten-inches long
C. One inch long
D. Two miles long

Answer 1

Hint: This property of the metal is applicable only to hard metals like gold, copper, silver, etc. Silver is one of the most ductile metals and can be drawn into very long wires.
Complete Stepwise Solution:
Metals have different types of properties among which one is ductility. But not all metals are ductile, some of them cannot be drawn into wires or beaten into sheets, which is commonly called the malleability of the substance. Soft metals such as the alkali metals, the alkaline earth metals etc. are neither malleable nor are they ductile while metals such as gold, silver, copper, etc. are highly malleable as well as ductile. That is why copper is made into wires by beating them and silver and gold are used to make jewelleries. Even aluminium is drawn into wires due to its ductility. As the metal sheets are beaten continuously so it is possible to stretch a small piece of silver weighing just one gram into Two miles long wire.

Hence, the correct answer is option D.

Notes: All the electrical wires are either made up of aluminium or copper. This is due to the fact that these metals can be drawn into wires readily. Gold and silver are also very ductile but they are not used to make wires because of their high cost.