Question

Ordinary rubber is an insulator. But the special rubber tyres of aircrafts are made slightly conductive. Why is this necessary?

Answer 1

Hint: Ordinary tyres used in our day to day life are made of rubber and are insulators or they do not conduct electricity. In case of aircrafts the speed or momentum is very high and a very high frictional force acts while landing. Here we need to use the concept of charging by friction of insulating objects. Answer the question depending on these concepts.

Complete Step by Step solution:
Ordinary rubber is an insulator. Insulators can be defined as substances which do not allow current to pass through them.
So, to avoid shock related risk in electricity works and disaster, where there is a chance of electrical damage, we can use insulators.
The tyres of aircraft are made slightly conducting. It requires a high speed moment to take off, which results in more friction with earth's surface. We know that due to friction, two bodies get charged which is known as the convection method of charging. We need to transfer this charge from the surface of tyres to earth so that it will not cause any problem afterwards. It means we make a system in which we can transfer the extra charge. We can transfer this charge to earth as the charge capacity of earth is infinite.
The similar effect we observed during landing of aircraft is because more force or thrust is applied on the earth surface which results in an increase in friction and also charging of tyres.
This charge can create sparks with the conducting material of the body of the aircraft and that’s why we want to get rid of this charge.
To save the aircraft from any unwanted situation due to the sparks from charges during take-off and landing we make tyres slightly conducting.

Additional information:
We must remember these definitions also

(I)Conductor: Conductor is a conducting device which allows electricity and heat to pass through it. Their resistance is very low for electricity.
(II)Insulator: Insulator is that device which does not allow passing through it because they have their resistance higher than conductors.
(III)Semiconductor: Semiconductor is those devices which have conductivity as well as resistance in between and insulator.

Note: When we rub two insulating objects to each other, electrons from one object transfer to the other and the objects will be charged. One object will be positively charged while the other will be negatively charged. We also have two other types of charging methods. One is charging by induction and the other is charging by conduction.