On Tue, 31 Aug 2004 08:50:39 -0700, Jim Kelley
wrote:

With so many small charges involved in a net substantial charge flow,
why shouldn`t charges be moving in two or more directions at once?

The simplest answer is that charges move in response to the local
electric field they experience. That field has only one value at that
point, at that instant, and is determined by the superposition of all
local electric fields.

If you presume the simplest answer, it still entails complexity in
that this is more correctly called "directed drift" wherein the motion
of the chargeS are random within a locality, but in the aggregate and
as an average tend in one direction.

This sort of dovetails with recent postings by Art speculating about
charge accelerating (without needing power mind you) in the circle of
a loop antenna. The truth of the matter is that those electrons/holes
would never move in a circle, nor even an arc given the short distance
of the net migration being very much less than the diameter of a
small, small wire (and at any HF frequency, infinitesimal).

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC