Rust does not conduct electricity...

...very well, at least. This is in response to a short conversation I had with Stan a few months ago. My car was not working very well... some times it worked and sometimes it didn't, may be a better way to put it. And one of those times it seemed to want to work I drove'er over to Stan's place to let him and my Dad look at it. We determined that most of what was under the hood was rusted over, to which Stan replied, "Shouldn't matter. I'd think rust should conduct electricity (in reference to all the wires connected to my car battery). Mike, what do you think?" Being a chemistry major, I thought this should be something I should know. And I didn't... a common trend in my chemistry career. The point being, I do now know, that rust will not conduct electricity very well. Oxygen is a very electronegative atom, meaning it doesn't like sharing its electrons. And rust is the bonding of oxygen to metals, usually iron. And since the epitome of electic theory centers on a metal's ability to share electrons, oxygen will certainly hinder that ability.

Hopefully that cleared it up for everyone. I know I've been concerned for some time.