{"id":1612,"date":"2018-02-10T07:16:29","date_gmt":"2018-02-09T19:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.funk.co.nz\/blog\/?p=1612"},"modified":"2018-02-10T07:17:20","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T19:17:20","slug":"whats-speed-electron-conduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.funk.co.nz\/blog\/science\/whats-speed-electron-conduction","title":{"rendered":"Whats the speed of an electron during conduction?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It's called drift velocity and at 1 amp of current the electrons are drifting at an amazingly slow <strong><span style=\"font-size: 24px;\">23 \u00ce\u00bcm\/s<\/span><\/strong> assuming a 2mm thick pure copper wire. 2mm is a super thick cable mind. Source: <a title=\"Drift Velocity\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Drift_velocity\">wikipedia<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Another source (<a href=\"http:\/\/resources.schoolscience.co.uk\/cda\/16plus\/copelech2pg3.html\">school science<\/a>) puts the drift velocity of the electrons that are part of a glowing hot 5 amps of current squirting down a tiny little wire of 0.5mm diameter at the much faster but still real slow:\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a07.35 \u00c3\u2014 10-4 m s<strong>\u00c2\u00a0 <\/strong>or\u00c2\u00a0<strong>0.7 milimeters\u00c2\u00a0per second<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>They travel slower in thick cables and faster in thin!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Inspired by <a href=\"https:\/\/electronics.stackexchange.com\/questions\/245610\/is-voltage-the-speed-of-electrons\">this<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0stack exchange question that asks:\u00c2\u00a0Is voltage the speed of electrons? Up until now I figured it was but voltage is more like the <em><strong>pressure<\/strong><\/em> of electrons. In a big thick wire they will be moving slowly because <strong>still waters run deep<\/strong>... as the wire thins, like white water rapids, they'll accelerate to relativistic speeds (waterfall) unless they hit something (impedance) and get warm maybe turn into steam (radio). Just like water in a hose with your finger at the end pinching the output and causing the water to spray out at high speed, so maybe do the electrons grinding to a halt as a fuse blows and breaks the chain of quantum custody.<\/p>\n<p>A resistor is a device that can slow the waters without evaporating or over heating. A power grid uses high voltage a cable that is so much thicker than it needs to be, in order also to keep cool and organised.<\/p>\n<p>According to a webpage I just read, the average distance an electron travels between collisions is 2.0\u00c2\u00a0<em>\u00ce\u00bc<\/em>m.<\/p>\n<p>According to the wisdom of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quora.com\/How-many-electrons-would-produce-1-amp-of-current-in-1-second\">these Quora answerers<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0in 1 amp at 1 volt there is\u00c2\u00a06.25 E18 unit charges. That's 6,250,000,000,000,000,000 unit positive charges.<\/p>\n<p>Now assume long distance transmission line running at 625 KV but only 1 amp. Now it's only 10,000,000,000,000 electrons per second because they are travelling faster.<\/p>\n<p>Hence, 1 Coulomb contains 1\/(1.6 E-19)=<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.jensign.com\/JavaScience\/www\/cuwire\/cuwire.html<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1613\" src=\"https:\/\/www.funk.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/cuwire.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"337\" height=\"90\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s called drift velocity and at 1 amp of current the electrons are drifting at an amazingly slow 23 \u00ce\u00bcm\/s assuming a 2mm thick pure copper wire. 2mm is a super thick cable mind. Source: wikipedia Another source (school science) puts the drift velocity of the electrons that are part of a glowing hot 5 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Whats the speed of an electron during conduction? - The Funk Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.funk.co.nz\/blog\/science\/whats-speed-electron-conduction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Whats the speed of an electron during conduction? - The Funk Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It&#039;s called drift velocity and at 1 amp of current the electrons are drifting at an amazingly slow 23 \u00ce\u00bcm\/s assuming a 2mm thick pure copper wire. 2mm is a super thick cable mind. Source: wikipedia Another source (school science) puts the drift velocity of the electrons that are part of a glowing hot 5 [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.funk.co.nz\/blog\/science\/whats-speed-electron-conduction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Funk Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-09T19:16:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-02-09T19:17:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.funk.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/cuwire.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tomachi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tomachi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.funk.co.nz\\\/blog\\\/science\\\/whats-speed-electron-conduction#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.funk.co.nz\\\/blog\\\/science\\\/whats-speed-electron-conduction\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"tomachi\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.funk.co.nz\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5e3b3851d9a5cbe644e6ccf190ea10f9\"},\"headline\":\"Whats the speed of an electron during conduction?\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-09T19:16:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-02-09T19:17:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.funk.co.nz\\\/blog\\\/science\\\/whats-speed-electron-conduction\"},\"wordCount\":334,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.funk.co.nz\\\/blog\\\/science\\\/whats-speed-electron-conduction#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.funk.co.nz\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/cuwire.gif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Science\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-NZ\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.funk.co.nz\\\/blog\\\/science\\\/whats-speed-electron-conduction\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.funk.co.nz\\\/blog\\\/science\\\/whats-speed-electron-conduction\",\"name\":\"Whats the speed of an electron during conduction? 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