Question

State whether the following statements are true or false.
Sea water is a bad conductor of electricity.
(A) True
(B) False

Answer 1

Hint: First, we need to understand the composition of seawater. Seawater contains a mixture of salts in ionic form. Electricity can be conducted through it. The common salt which we consume every day is nothing else but sodium chloride.

Complete step by step answer:
Electricity is the presence and flow of electric charge. It constitutes the flow of electrons through conductors. Electricity can easily flow through ions. For that, we need substances to have free electrons in them. For example, metals and up to some extent, semiconductors.
Metals have a large number of free electrons which allows the current to conduct through it. Hence, they are called conductors. Similarly, solutions to having free ions can also conduct electricity.
Free ions comprise positive and negative charges. They allow the current to flow through them. Conductivity depends upon the concentration of dissolved ions.
Seawater has a large number of dissociated ions. Sodium chloride dissociates into sodium and chlorine ions and similarly, many other salts present in seawater dissociate into the respective ions.
When this seawater is used as an electrolyte solution, the cations and anions move to the opposite electrode and conduct electricity. So, seawater is not a bad conductor of electricity, rather a good conductor of electricity.

The statement is false. Hence, the correct option is B.

Note: We know, around 2.5 percent of seawater consists of salts, mainly sodium chloride. Cation is a positively charged ion, which gains a positive charge by donating an electron. And anion is a negatively charged ion, which gains the negative charge by accepting an electron.