"Don Kelly" wrote in message
news:B6wKe.180654$s54.136019@pd7tw2no...
"Paul Hovnanian P.E." wrote in message
...
John Fields wrote:

On Sat, 30 Jul 2005 15:14:37 GMT, "JoeSixPack"
wrote:

Before you attack this post, saying electrons can only travel at the
speed
of light, that's incorrect. The electrons themselves can travel any
speed,

---
No, they can only travel at speeds less than the speed of light.
---

but the voltage wave produced does travel at 300,000 kms per second.

---
It's not a "voltage" wave, it's an electromagnetic wave, and it can
only propagate at the speed of light in a vacuum.

Either an Electrolux or a Hoover.

;-)

--
Paul Hovnanian
------------------------------------------------------------------
APL is a write-only language. I can write programs in APL, but I
can't read any of them.
-- Roy Keir

Of course you can read APL programs- it's just that the necessary comments
are far,far longer than the program itself!

--

Don Kelly @shawcross.ca
remove the X to answer
----------------------------


Electrons travel way slower than light speed. Slower than walking speed as a
matter of fact in a conductor. Their speed is determined by current and the
size of the wire. Figured this up a long time ago and seemed like I rember
the answer being in less than an inch per second but that does seem awful
slow and I would not bet on it. I do know we figured that a conductor would
explode if the electrons were traveling at five miles per hour. This was
not the point at which wires exploded but just a speed we pulled out of the
hat and discovered that the current to size ratio needed to get this speed
was impractical.. I m sure you could Google the subject and get better info
than I have provided.