Inertial Current: Electron Movement & Current Generation

[Altair Tans]

Are the electrons of a conductor so loosely bound that just moving a current might give rise to a tiny bit of current owing to electron's inertia??

 

[mfb]

Completely negligible. Electrons make up ~1/4000 of the mass of typical conductors, and if you have a high current in them they might have something like 1 mm/s net velocity. That gives 1 kg of cable a kinetic energy of 0.1 nJ, or 10^-10 J. Typically even less because not all electrons contribute to current flow. The inductance of the cable will be much more important.