Wiedemann-Franz law demonstration in a student practicum

Abstract

Wiedemann-Franz law is a prediction of electronic theory of electric and thermal conductivity in metals, which states that a Lorenz ratio $L=\kappa/(\sigma T)$, where $\kappa$ is a thermal conductivity, $\sigma$ --- electric conductivity and $T$ --- absolute temperature, is a universal constant in certain cases. We present here a simple experimental setup to verify this prediction in a teaching experiment.