Copper is used over other metals for generating electricity with magnets. Why? Are there better metals that will generate more electricity?
Electromagnets work better if the means of delivering current to the wire coils is more efficient. Copper wire is a standard means of carrying electrical current for many applications. Copper has low resistance, is ductile and malleable (able to be made into wire and coils), and is relatively inexpensive. Any wire than carries current could work; for example, gold would be better than copper electrically. However, gold is expensive and heavy. Induction coils (generators) are like electromagnets in reverse, in that a permanent magnet moving through a coil produces a current in the wire of the coil. The same considerations as above apply to copper wire here.
The reason is because copper is highly electrically conductive.
It is the cheapest most conductive metal available. Yes there are better materials, but they are more expensive.
Copper has long been recognized as one of the best conductors of electricity known to man. There are some superconductor metals but these are for high tech inventions because they do not produce the heat or magnetic field that regular conductors do and also they cost way more. By the way, if you aren't familiar with the laws of physics yet, for every magnetic field there is an electrical field produced and for every electrical field there is a magnetic field produced. Since copper is such a great conductor of electricity, they have always used it to absorb the electrical field produced by magnets. Also, aluminum is frequently used for electrical conduction. The problem is that it melts at a fairly low temperature and it is not magnetically attractive.
Copper has a low resistance to electricity = (at 20 °C) 16.78 nΩ·m compare with: Aluminum, which has slightly more resistance: =(at 20 °C) 26.50 nΩ·m and, Gold, which has even lower resistance than copper, but is not affordable in most applications: =(at 20 °C) 22.14 nΩ·m nΩ·m = nano-ohms times meters = 0.000 000 001 ohms times meters Hope this helps!
