speed of electricity

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B34ST1Y

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whats the speed of the electricity flowing through roughly 100ft of copper about 1mm thick?
 
At the same speed light travels through a vacuum i think?

299,792,458 Meters per second
186,282.4 Miles per second

Although i think many physicists debate about this :p

Moja
 
Moja said:
At the same speed light travels through a vacuum i think?

299,792,458 Meters per second
186,282.4 Miles per second

Although i think many physicists debate about this :p

Moja

imposible nothing (exept light) can travel as the speed of line, including electrons
 
imposible nothing (exept light) can travel as the speed of line, including electrons
Yup, speed of electricity is nothing compared to the speed of light although I couldn't even begin to estimate how fast it goes =/
 
actually, I am as fast as the speed of light... maybe a little faster... anyhow, back to the question. Electric current is slow moving and actually almost sits there and vibrates (thus exciting from one electron to the other). Energy flow, on the other hand, is very fast (and yes, there IS a difference). To say how fast is rather hard, because the the speed of the energy flow is related to the value of the current... small current = low speed energy flow and vice-a-versa. Thats just one thing that affects the speed. The size of the wire (listed above) also does. To find out the speed have to know the amperes, wire diameter/radius, and how many moving electrons per cubic centimer. Once you have this the formula is:

I = amperes
D = wire diameter
Q= moving electrons per cubic centimeter
e = charge per electron

cm/sec = I / Q x e x R ^2 x pi

this is for DC
 
CntdwnToExtn said:
so...if your traveling at the speed of light and you turn your headlights on..what happens??? hahaha......ya....lame lol.

i used to know this stuff.....darnit!!!

You will see no light in front of you.

Unless you are in the horizon of a black hole. :D
 
my 6th grade science teacher told us that in the time it takes for the light to turn on after you hit the switch, the electricity can travel around the world 7 times (I think that is what he said, it was something like that, that was 6 years ago, so my memory is a little foggy)
 
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