On 2021-04-28 08:33, Bill Cromwell wrote:
Do you suppose that teacher could have been wrong?
It's possible. I recently read a post on Quora that was a real eye-opener. This guy said he was a physicist, and that many people had a misconception about electricity.
Here it is: "Current" is flow of electrons. Electrons flow around our circuits at the speed of light.
He said that electrons do NOT zoom around in wires at the speed of light. In fact, they move very slowly. What moves around our wires at the speed of light is "charge".
Charge is ( I think ) the status of an electron existing at a higher energy level.
This electron bangs in to the electron next door and transfers its higher energy level to it. Then that electron bangs in to the next electron etc.
It's rather like that desk toy with a row of suspended ball bearings. You swing the end one, it bangs into the next one and ultimately the one at the other end swings - without the ones in the middle moving much. It's called
a "Newton's Cradle".
- Jerry KF6VB
