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Mystery #1Tier 2metals and electricity

Why are nearly all metals shiny, and why can they carry electricity so well?

Look at a spoon, a coin, a car bumper: nearly every metal has that same bright gleam. And metals do something plastic and wood cannot, they let electricity race straight through them. Two very different talents, shine and electricity, yet almost every metal has both. What could a metal be hiding inside that gives it both at once?

A mass of natural copper crystals catching the light in a warm metallic orange, the shine that comes from loose electrons
Photo: Robert M. Lavinsky · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Your guess

What do you think a metal is hiding inside that makes it both shiny and able to carry electricity?

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