Why is glass a poor conductor of electricity?
It comes down to their chemical structure and/or microstructure. For a material to conduct electricity it has to let electrons easily flow through it. This happens through a variety of mechanisms. In metals the atoms and their electrons create what engineers think of a an electron sea or river. So that electricity is created whenever new electrons are put into one end and these new ones cause old ones to flow out the other end. Other mechanisms of flow include disassociated ion flow. example- electricity in salt water and “hole”/”electron” swapping flow in a semiconductor Styrofoams, concretes, and plastics have microstructures that are inhibitive to electron flow. Almost like walls. This is because they are all covalent or possibly associated ionic bonds (maybe the concrete). These bonds are strong and take a bunch of energy to break and cause the individual atoms of their electrons to conduct the charge. That is why with an astronaumical amount of electricity you can force these mate
