why does copper conduct heat faster than aluminum, steel, and brass?

Answer 1

The comparison of thermal conductivity to electrical conductivity seems to hold fairly well until you come to diamonds, which are extremely good electrical insulators, but have a thermal conductivity over twice as high as that of silver, which is higher than copper.

According to Wikipedia, there is an algorithm for predicting thermal conductivities, but it is evidently quite difficult to apply. They refer to a second method which involves analyses of phonons, a term I had not encountered until I looked this up.

At this point it's safe to say that nobody knows for sure, but there are lots of people trying to find out.

Answer 2

metals like brass are not compounds but simple mixtures and lack a specific crystal structure. The expansion of Al or Cu would depend upon the particular form (or cyrstalline shape) of the material. This is determined by the temperature and pressure of the metal when it solidified. There are "phase diagrams" or pressure temperture graphs that show this data that you can find in materials science3 books. Brass, however, is a misture of tih and copper so it is most likely to expand the most and to have the lowest melting point because there are no chemical bonds betweem the Sn and Cu.

Answer 3

Thermal conductivity is proportional to electrical conductivity which is related to how loosely bound the electrons are. Copper has the most loosely bound electrons of the three, and therefore conducts electricity and heat better than the other three.

Answer 4

copper has a higher specific heat capacity (represented as c in equations). it also has a higher electrical permeability, which you will come acoss later (if you are taking grade 11 physics like i think you are)

Answer 5

less molecular structure provides better conductivity