Electrolytic conductivity

- [Voiceover] Most solids
offer some amount of resistance

to the flow of current through them.

This allows us to define
things like the resistivity,

or the conductivity, but the
same is true for liquids.

Consider this container full of a liquid.

We can measure its resistivity.

Now, if I took a battery,
and I put one lead here,

and one lead here, if there
is a voltage and this liquid

is able to conduct electricity,
then this current should

be able to flow through
the intervening liquid

over to the other side and then back up.

Sometimes, this is done
with AC current, otherwise,

you might get electrolysis and
then you get bubbles in here

and that changes the liquid in some way.

We want to measure the
resistance and the resistivity

of the liquid, not of some altered liquid.

So, sometimes you use AC, but
this is the general principal.

Send in a voltage, a certain
amount of current will flow.

How can we use that, to
determine the resistivity?

Well, we know resistivity
is equal to the resistance

that we measure times the
area divided by the length,

and now you see there's
kinda of a problem length.

I can imagine getting that.

This length in here would
just be this distance.

There's my length, because my "resistor,"

is this liquid in here.

But, what's my area?

So, this would be a bad experiment to do.

If we want to measure the
resistivity, what we really want,

is something where we
have a well defined area.

Let me get rid of this.

Imagine you had two plates.

Take these two plates.

You put them in the solution
you want to measure the

resistivity of, so, we put them in here.

Stick them into there.

They have a well defined area.

We've got those.

We can measure those if we want.

We set them apart some known
distance between them, L,

and you hook them up to battery.

So, take this one, hook
it up to a known voltage,

hook the other side up to the other plate,

and if this solution, if this
electrolytic solution in here

can conduct electricity,
current will flow from this side

to the other side, and you
can measure these quantities.

You measure the length, that's easy.

You measure the area.

You got that.

How do we measure the resistance?

Well, we know the voltage.

We can have a known voltage
of the battery up here,

and you can stick ammeter in
here to measure the current.

If I stick an ammeter,
ammeters measure the current.

Now, I can just use Ohm's
law, and I know that

the resistance is just going
to be the voltage divided

by the current, and if plug
all these values into here,

I can get an experimental value for the

resistivity of this liquid,
sometimes it's called

the electrolytic resistivity.

Or, one over the electrolytic
resistivity would be

the electrolytic conductivity.

So, this would be the
electrolytic conductivity.

So, this is an experimental way to do it.

Honestly, you don't
even have to go through

all that much trouble.

You can just take a solution.

First, put a solution in here
that has a known resistivity.

That way, you can just do
this: R equals Rho L over A.

If you know the resistivity,
and you can easily

measure the resistance,
then you can just figure

out what this constant is,
and this will stay the same.

You just leave those
same plates in there with

the same length and the same area.

Put a new solution in there,
and that gives you this number,

and this number staying the same.

So, technically speaking, you
don't have to go in there,

measure the area each time, and the length

between these each time,
if you have some calibrated

electrolytic solution where
it has a known resistivity.

Or, you could use it the other way.

If you had a solution
with a known resistivity,

but there may be impurities
in there, or there

may be dissolved salts,
or something, and you

want to know what the concentration is.

Well, that is going to
directly affect how much

current will flow, and
it will directly affect

the measured electrolytic conductivity.

So, if you measure this,
and it comes out different

from what you would expect
from a baseline solution.

You can figure out what the concentration

is of the conductive impurities
within this solution.