How to test if conductor is copper or silver based


Hi all,

Was wondering if anyone knows of any low-cost or no-cost procedure for testing if a conductor is copper or silver. I bought some banana plugs for cheap but claimed to be made of "pure" copper or silver. I am just curious if the claim is valid.

Thanks in advance,

Kenobi
kenk168
any low-cost or no-cost procedure for testing if a conductor is copper or silver.

Some people claim to hear a difference - perhaps someone could listen to them and tell you? - that would cost nothing ;-)
No such thing as commercially available pure copper or silver. Even the very best and most expensive cables use metals that have a very, very small amount of inpurities.
Autosports - the best copper I know of is zero crystal 9N copper that is 99.9999999% pure or 7N silver that is 99.99999% pure.

Kenobi -testing for purity is very easy - just weight your banana plug (just the metal part) and then drop into water to calculate volume. Once you get density you know what it is. If banana plug won't give you accurate reading of displaced water - then use 1000 of them. I hope it was helpful.
One of my friends is working at the pawn shop and he had a customer who brought him a gold slab to sell. A monetary standard gold slab should weigh about 50 kilos and eventually it did, but he decided to drill a hole... After just less than millimeter of drilling the tin started to come up above the drill bit... What d'u think?