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conductor which causes more friction and heat, also known as, resistance.
In stranded wires the charge on an individual strand may cross from strand to strand. Since the strands
are thin, but still in electrical contact with neighboring strands, we can expect the effect of internal
impedance to be similar to that of a solid wire of a comparable diameter to the bundle of strands. Hence
the current will tend to flow near the `skin' of the bundle of wires, just as it does with a single conductor
of like diameter.
Now that we understand what oxidation can do to a copper conductor, what do we do about it? Well we
already said that once oxidation starts, it's hard to stop. The solution is to keep oxidation from getting a
foothold on our copper. The generally accepted practice is to coat the copper with another conductive
metal. Tin, right? Well, yes usually it is tin, but it could be other metals like gold or silver. Let's touch
on them briefly. Silver is the most conductive metal. However, it has its own oxidation problems and it's
expensive. So, just like at the dinner table, silver is for special occasions. Gold, in comparison to silver
is less conductive, but it doesn't tarnish. Gold would be great except it's pricey and doesn't work that
much better than tin when you consider the delta in cost. Why use gold at all? In all but the most
unique circumstances gold isn't necessary, but it sure does sell well to retail consumers who want to
impress their buddies by showing off bling on the back of their stereo system! That leaves us with tin
which is a perfect combination of stability and electrical performance. Tin is the 49th most abundant
element, and has the largest number of stable isotopes (10) in the periodic table making it extremely
stable. This means cost is kept low while resistance to corrosion is kept high. These factors make tin a
fantastic choice for coating other metals to prevent oxidation.
That covers most of the academic principles regarding the coating of copper conductors. What real
world problems does the use of tinned copper conductors solve? For starters, shelf life of the un-
metals from bonding. If the oxidation is present on the conductor but not pronounced, the metal may
bond. However, in time as the hard to stop oxidation process marches on; the bonds will deteriorate as
the material turns from copper to copper oxide dust. This is usually on the microscopic level, but it has
an impact on conductivity. Feedback received from associates who manufacture modular plugs has
shown it is much more likely the connector's connection will corrode with bare copper. Consequently,
the bare copper assembly will eventually fail the contact resistance test after aging. Many people ignore
this test, but it is just as much a part of the TIA and IEC standards as any of the other parameters and it