Thank you for the great examples! See, this is yet another misconception that I picked up at elementary school: that “electricity travels at the speed of light”. After having read all the comments, yours included, and done some more reading, it is obvious that it’s the effect of electricity that to us seems immediate - for instance, a light bulb turning on. The propagation of the electromagnetic fields is what’s fast. Am I right?
Yup. When you add an electron to one end of a wire, the change in the electric field will be felt very quickly (high percentage of light speed) across the wire and the electrons, now outnumbering protons, will repulse and want to shed the extra one from any point in the wire.
Like when you add an atom to a sealed gas container.
brendansimms@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Yep electrons travel at VERY different speeds through different materials. For instance, in certain semiconductors they can travel millions of times faster than in copper wire, which is why they are used for power amplification. But even in those, a single electron does not travel very far, relative to the distance we transport ‘electricity’ through wires and such.