Rob Adelman wrote:

William Sommerwerck wrote:
At the velocity electrons travel in metal (nearly 186,000 miles/sec or
almost a trillion (10^9) feet/sec), that length difference wouldn't matter.


Actually, electrons travel very slowly in metal -- a fraction of an inch per
second, IIRC.

But doesn't each electron just bump the next one into submission? Kind
of like a relay race?

Yes. Think of a hose filled with marbles. Push one more marble in at one
end and a marble falls out the other end almost instantaneously. The net
velocity of the individual marbles, however, is relatively low.

--
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Michael Kesti | "And like, one and one don't make
| two, one and one make one."
| - The Who, Bargain