On May 31, 5:28*pm, Cecil Moore wrote:
Bruce W. Ellis wrote:
The actual mean drift velocity for electrons at any reasonable curent
is quite low because there are so many of them in the conductor.
However, the electric wave driving them propagates at he speed of
light appropriate for the medium.

The electrons move hardly at all at RF/AC frequencies.
On the average, they tend to oscillate mostly in place.
What travels at the speed of light are the photons
emitted by the oscillating electrons. The electrons
form the equivalent of a "bucket brigade" for the
photonic wave energy.
--
73, Cecil, IEEE, OOTC, *http://www.w5dxp.com

Gentleman,
People are so glib when they speak of the speed of light.
When a time varying current is applied to a conductor there are
several reactances involved by that conductor.
One of them has the same characteristic speed which is often
attributed to light. It is this characteristic speed of an item that
impacts another item and thus imparts the same speed to that which is
impacted. Obviously that which is impacted is responsible for the
emission of light when it enters a resistive medium as latent energy
is distributed during the transition from potential to kinetic energy.
It also posseses a charge which is accellerated! Does that ring a
bell? I suggest you investigate the speed of capacitor discharge first
to see if that is possibly the instigator of such high speed and move
on from there
Art