- #1
newtonrulez
- 9
- 0
Hi!
I was just reading about drift speed and I read that the speed is about 10^-4m/s. It then struck me that if electricity is carried by electrons, then in a given circuit, how is the light bulb lighting up so quickly when according to my calculations the time taken to travel 0.5 metres for electrons (current carriers) is :-
T = D/S = 0.5m / 10^-4m/s which is a very large value for the time.
How are electrons supposedly traveling so fast in the conducting wires with such a low drift speed?
Thanks!
I was just reading about drift speed and I read that the speed is about 10^-4m/s. It then struck me that if electricity is carried by electrons, then in a given circuit, how is the light bulb lighting up so quickly when according to my calculations the time taken to travel 0.5 metres for electrons (current carriers) is :-
T = D/S = 0.5m / 10^-4m/s which is a very large value for the time.
How are electrons supposedly traveling so fast in the conducting wires with such a low drift speed?
Thanks!