Question

The electrical resistance of an insulator is?

Answer 1

Hint: You could firstly briefly define electrical resistance and insulator for better understanding. You could thus understand that electric resistance actually categorizes a material to conductors, insulators and semiconductors. Then, you could also discuss the case of the ideal insulator and hence get the answer.

Complete step by step answer:
In the question, we are asked to give the electrical resistance of an insulator. Electric resistance is that property of the material that categorizes the materials into metals, insulators and semiconductors. Electrical resistance, if you may recall, is defined as the opposition offered to the flow of charges in a material. We know that that class of materials that is known to not conduct electricity is categorized as insulators. Therefore, the insulators must quite obviously have very high electrical resistance.

In order for a material to be a perfect insulator, which is the ideal condition, it should have infinite resistance

Additional information:
Another term used for electrical resistance is the ohmic resistance. Electric resistance of a material is measured in ohms and is symbolized by Greek letter omega$\left( \Omega \right)$. The magnitude of resistance can be found from Ohm’s law,
$V=IR$

Note: The collision of free electrons with the atoms of a substance prevents free motion of electrons. This process in turn results in electrical resistance. We could define one unit of electrical resistance as 1A current flow across 1V potential difference. We should also remember that Ohm’s law is only applicable in the case of pure resistance.