This determines if the material is an insulator or a metal in the dimension of the propagation. The result of the number of states in a band is also useful for predicting the conduction properties. For example, in a one dimensional crystalline structure an odd number of electrons per atom results in a half-filled top band; there are free electrons at the Fermi level resulting in a metal. On the other hand, an even number of electrons exactly fills a whole number of bands, leaving the rest empty. If then the Fermi level lies in an occupied band gap between the highest occupied state and the lowest empty state, the material will be an insulator or semiconductor.