3 ms·

You're both right. Individual electrons can move at high speeds (not c), but the overall flow of electrons in a wire is very slow. This happens because individu

You're both right. Individual electrons can move at high speeds (not c), but the overall flow of electrons in a wire is very slow. This happens because individuals move in random directions but the group has a slow push with the current. Imagine people going to the shopping mall. Once in a while someone goes in and an hour or two later they come out the other door 10m away. But they travelled a lot more than 10m. You just didn't notice from outside.

mbell 9y ago
> Individual electrons can move at high speeds (not c) My memory may be off but as I recall the fermi speed in copper is only around 0.5% of c, rather far off. What does propagate at speeds on the order of c is the EM field, which is what most people are actually talking about when they think of electricity moving down a wire. But, it's still something around ~60% of c in a copper transmission line.