the.com/constantan
a copper-nickel alloy that flatly refuses to let temperature mess with its resistance
means Constantan is a copper-nickel alloy (roughly 55% copper, 45% nickel) prized because its electrical resistance stays nearly constant across a wide range of temperatures, making it ideal for precision resistors, strain gauges, and thermocouples.
from The name is a coinage from the Latin root constant- ('standing firm, unchanging'), the same root behind English 'constant' — a fitting badge for a metal whose whole selling point is refusing to budge as the heat rises. It's an early-20th-century technical coinage, naming the alloy after the very property that makes it useful.
- name origin
- named for its constant electrical resistance
- thermocouples
- paired with copper or iron to measure heat
- composition
- roughly 55 percent copper, 45 percent nickel
- strain gauges
- backbone of sensors weighing bridges and rockets
- old money
- once minted into actual circulating coins
constantan wire — copper-nickel alloy (55% copper, 45% nickel) used in thermocouples and resistance standards since the 1880s
constantan thermocouple — constantan paired with copper in type t thermocouples, standard for cryogenic temperature measurement down to -200°c