[ntucker]

Why is vegetable oil not conductive?

[enahs]

Vegetable oil is not a good solvent. This means there are not many ions in vegetable oil, so there is no easy path for electricity to flow.

[constant thinker]

Check wiki and google for conductivity.

[Borek]

Why is vegetable oil not conductive?

Why is pure water not conductive?

[mdlhvn]

Vegetable oil consists mostly of ester of fatty acids and glycerol. They are covalent compounds so they can be conductive
 

[Borek]

They are covalent compounds so they can be conductive

Have you missed a 't?

[thienanh]

Vegetable oil consists mostly of ester of fatty acids and glycerol. They are covalent compounds so they can be conductive
 

You mean CANNOT be conductive, don't you?
Ok, pure water and most organic compounds cannot conduct electricity because they themselves don't have any ion. Remember that the equilibrium constant of pure water is exceptionally small, so pure water doesn't have enough ions to be conductive

[hobaoe]

Simply, vegetable oil molecules are non-polar molecules and they have very strong covalent bonds so they cannot dissociate in water, therefore ions cannot be formed , thus elecetric current can not be conducted thru the oil solution.