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### How does electric energy flow in a circuit? [duplicate]

I have read that the electric energy flows from the battery into the circuit through electric field created outside the wires into the light bulb (or any other resistor). I have also read that the ...
3k views

### What's the difference between electron movement and charge movement in electricity? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: how does electricity propagate in a conductor? I have read that in an electrical wire electrons movement is very slow while the energy or charge is very fast. What's the ...
374 views

### How do electrons actually move in a wire? [duplicate]

Do they jump from atom to atom or are they free-flowing? Where does resistance fit in? Do electrons physically HIT the atoms? If so, how do they hit atoms if the nucleus is small and far away from the ...
379 views

### How is electric field instantaneously generated inside a conductor connected across two terminals of a battery? [duplicate]

I have learnt that the electric field that is responsible for current flow is generated inside a conductor as soon as the two ends of the conductor are connected or brought in contact with the two ...
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### How do electrons move at an atomic level? [duplicate]

This was meant to be a sub question in the comments of my last question but I think it is big enough to have its own post. I know that electrons move because of the potential difference across the ...
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### Conduction and propagation [duplicate]

What is the difference between conduction of electric wave in conductor and propagation of electromagnetic wave in dielectric? Why propagation term is used for dielectric and conduction for conductor?...
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### How the current flows in a circuit? [duplicate]

If the electrons and protons are moving in a circuit, then they should cancel each other after crossing the barrier? How is it working?
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### Speed of a current passing through a wire [duplicate]

The wire is at 50hz, and is an aluminum alloy (AAAC 1120). Resistance in the wire is at 0.0897 ohm/km. So for a length of conductor 135km long, the resultant resistance will be 12.1095 ohm. It's AC ...
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### Since cables carry electricity moving at the speed of light, why aren't computer networks much faster?

Why can't cables used for computer networking transfer data really fast, say at the speed of light? I ask this because electricity travels at the speed of light. Take Ethernet cables for example, I ...
4k views

### Speed of electrons in a current-carrying metallic wire: does it even make sense?

Does it make sense to speak about the speed of electrons in a current-carrying wire (non perfect conductor)? If so, what is their speed? Here are my thoughts: On the Internet (Wikipedia, ...
22k views

### How is possible for current to flow so fast when charge flows so slow?

How is it possible for current to flow so fast when charge flows so slowly? We know electrons travel very slowly while charge travels at ~the speed of light.
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### How does the speed of electrons change around a circuit?

I have been thinking about ways of teaching electronics and I'm wondering if the following is true... For starters, when we talk about voltage as energy per unit charge, is this energy manifest ...
32k views

### How does electricity flow in conductor when potential difference is applied?

Electrons move from higher potential to lower potential. When a conductor is connected to battery, electron move from negative terminal to positive terminal. But the battery itself forms a Electric ...
5k views

### How do electrons actually move in a circuit?

Last year, we were taught about electricity, about how electrons move in a closed circuit. But as our teacher had not taught us about electric fields yet, she gave us a simplified model of motion of ...
10k views

### How fast does an electron travel in a circuit?

How is it possible to calculate the speed of an electron in a circuit? What factors does it depend on?
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### Explain the microscopic nature of Electric current?

Explain the microscopic nature of Electric current?i.e What is is average current and Instantaneous current? A microscopic view what really happens?
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### How electricity works acutally?

I've been told that electricity is due to flow of charges(-ve charge=electron) that are provided by the battery. And no. of charges that leave battery at one end are equal to no. of charges that re-...
174 views

### Currents and the Speed of Light

Why is it that currents don't flow at the speed of light, but rather significant ratios of the speed of light. I don't have any formal reasoning as to why they would flow at the speed of light-I just ...