I have already written more than once that the conventionally accepted “explanation” in physics of the causes of the electrical resistance of metals is false, absurdeous and does not stand up to criticism by at least one, but very significant fact. I quote, once again, ONE LINE dedicated to the “explanation” of the causes of the electrical resistance of metals in the Physical Encyclopedic Dictionary,

Quote from an article in the Physical Encyclopedia, vol. 5, pp. 449-450, article

“Electrical resistance”. I ask you to pay attention to the ratio of the number of words and sentences devoted to idle chatter about the subject and devoted to the MAIN THING.: EXPLANATION OF THE CAUSES OF THE ELECTRICAL RESISTANCE OF METALS!

“In the case of metals (the most important for practice), electrical resistance is due to the fact that the crystal lattice of metals is distorted by thermal fluctuations and structural inhomogeneities (impurity atoms, structural lattice defects) on which electrons are scattered.”

THAT’S ALL!!! Amazing brevity and lapidarity!

LYING FROM THE FIRST TO THE LAST WORD!

In the absence of an applied electric field, electrons in metals move freely in the crystal lattice at speeds from 600 km/sec to 2000 km/sec! This is the so-called “zero energy” (several electron volts) of free electrons in metals, remaining UNCHANGED from cryotemperature (close to Absolute zero – 273 degrees Celsius) and up to 10,000 degrees on the absolute temperature scale, differing from Celsius only in that zero (according to Kelvin, who proposed this the scale) is shifted below zero Celsius by 273 degrees.

The electron drift rate in the best conductors is tenths of a MILLIMETER per SECOND at the highest technically possible field strengths in them!

The question is, why do electrons, drifting at a fraction of a millimeter per second and SCATTERING “on thermal fluctuations and structural inhomogeneities of the crystal lattice,” heat metal red and even melt it, while their chaotic velocities a BILLION TIMES GREATER do not turn any piece of metal without any fields into a lump of plasma heated to billions of degrees??? After all, they are supposedly “DISSIPATING” on these inhomogeneities, they are obliged to release the monstrous kinetic energy they possess!!!

My long-standing explanation gives a clear and sensible answer to this question: There are no collisions or scattering of electrons in metals! Just as there are no “free electrons” flying back and forth in the vacuum of the metal crystal lattice, but there are many (NOT ALL) electrons loosely bound to atoms and SLIDING ALONG GENERALIZED EXTERNAL ELECTRON ORBITS OF METAL ATOMS!

In these, and only in these generalized orbits, electrons move at speeds characteristic of these orbits-energies of 600-2000 kilometers per second. Therefore, a piece of metal remains cold unless some electromagnetic fields act on it. When we apply a certain voltage to a metal conductor, that is, we create a certain electric field inside the metal, the electrons begin to slowly drift along the aforementioned orbits along the field, while they create an ordered magnetic field around themselves, which turns their spins (Magnetic moments) so that they begin to interact intensively with atomic magnetic fields and change the configuration of atomic electron orbits. THIS IS the Electrical resistance which causes a HEATING of atoms, their production of thermal energy, the potential energy of mutually formed electron orbits of atoms! And the faster the electrons orderly drift in their generalized orbits, the greater the magnetic field they create, and the more they enhance the MAGNETIC INTERACTION (“coupling”) of electron spins with the magnetic fields of metal atoms!

“Question”: How do the “good” metallic conductors silver, copper, and gold, which have low electrical resistance, differ from the “bad” conductors, such as special alloys used as heating elements and which have high electrical resistance?

Answer: Only the number of electrons capable of “sliding” along the generalized orbits of the atoms of the crystal lattice – There are much more of them in good conductors than in bad ones. The difference between the resistivity of good and bad conductors can reach 30-70 times, which means that by connecting a copper wire with nichrome or constantane (high–resistance conductors), we connect conductors with DIFFERENT NUMBERS of ELECTRONS CAPABLE of DRIFTING: There are many of them in copper, and a few in nichrome and constantane! Since the current value is the same in series–connected conductors, this means that MORE electrons in copper drift with low speed, and FEWER electrons in nichrome and constantane, but drift at a speed 30-70 times greater. This means that at the ATOMIC LEVEL (on average. the macroscopic magnetic field remains the same!) they also create large local magnetic fields of “coupling” with the magnetic fields of atoms! This causes severe deformations of the electronic orbits of the nichrome and constantane atoms, that is, it increases the potential energy of their deformed orbits, which is HEATING of the conductor. At the same time, copper wires with the same current remain practically cold, and the wires of nichrome and constantane are heated to red heat!

What is the reason for the change in the resistivity of metals depending on their temperature?

In metals, it increases with increasing temperature and decreases with decreasing temperature. In semiconductors, on the contrary, heating dramatically reduces their resistivity due to the same increase in the drift-capable electrons and “holes” (vacancies).

I believe that there are two competing processes in metals and semiconductors: an increase in the number of charge carriers with increasing temperature, and the process of deformation of the electronic orbits of atoms, which is the opposite in it’s effect.

In semiconductors, to a certain limit, the process of multiplication of charge carriers prevails over the growth of magnetic coupling between them and atomic orbits deformed in a certain way.

In metals, the increase in the number of electrons capable of drifting is also exists, but the deformation of orbits, which is the thermal energy of atoms, increases the coupling of electron spins with the magnetic fields of the orbits, and this process is predominant in metals. Therefore, their resistivity increases with increasing temperature. This is also indicated by the graph of changes in the thermal conductivity of metals with temperature in the Wiedemann-Franz law, which establishes the relationship between the electrical and thermal conductivity of metals.

It seems to me that the above explanation is logical and consistent with the real picture, and differs from the absurdeous, albeit generally accepted, doctrine of “electron scattering on inhomogeneities of the crystal lattice.”

Faciant meliora potentes

14 IX 2026