Question

Which of the following is not an example of an insulator in the kitchen?
A) An oven mitt
B) A wooden spoon
C) Pots and pans
D) A plastic measuring cup

Answer 1

Hint:A material is said to be an insulator if it does not conduct electricity. So for some material to be categorized as “not an insulator”, it should allow the electric current to pass through it. This suggests that the material must offer low resistance to the electric current.

Complete step by step answer.
Step 1: Mention the properties of an insulator to determine the odd one out in the given options.

An insulator is described as a bad conductor of electricity. This implies that it offers very high resistance to the electric current passing through it. Here we have to determine the object which does not exhibit these properties i.e., the object that we seek must be a conductor of electricity.

Metals are often considered to be good conductors of electricity because they have free valence electrons that can move to the conduction band when they acquire enough energy.

As the body of pots and pans used in the kitchen are made of metals like copper and aluminium, they will be good conductors of electricity and therefore will be categorized as “not an insulator”.

So the correct option is C.

Note:Wood, plastic and fabric do not conduct electricity and so they are considered to be insulators. Hence the oven mitts, the wooden spoon and the plastic measuring cup are examples of insulators found in a kitchen. Ohm’s law gives current to be inversely proportional to the resistance and so we say insulators offer very high resistance to the electric current which makes them not conduct electricity. Not all metals are good conductors of electricity. Bismuth and Tungsten are examples of metals which are poor conductors of electricity.