What is the speed of electric current flow in a copper conductor for physics class?

Hello!
it needs knowledge of the speed of the electric current in the conductor. I need this for my physics lessons

I have learned in physics that the speed of the current is close to the speed of light, and the electrons in the conductor travel about 2 cm / s. These are messages from many years ago and I cannot guarantee their correctness.

Hucul wrote:

I have learned in physics that the speed of the current is close to the speed of light, and the electrons in the conductor travel about 2 cm / s. These are messages from many years ago and I cannot guarantee their correctness.

Hello
The speed of the current flow is assumed to be equal to the speed of light and is 300,000 km / s.
greetings

I confirm that the speed of the current is close to c (that is, the speed of light).
From what I remember, the speed of the electron itself is much lower than 2cm / s. But the electrons bounce off one another creating an "electric current".

For antenna cables, the speed is assumed to be 2/3 the speed of light.

People, what about 2 cm / s.
If the electrons "spun" at such a speed, David's slingshot (a figure from the Bible) would be a weapon several times more powerful than an atomic bomb.
In quantum mechanics, Newton's physics does not apply precisely to the enormous speed of electrons and the impossibility of calculating where the electron is (using Newtonian physics).
greetings

At school in physics, we had a task on calculating the speed of the current and the facio said that there are two speeds, one close to light (the movement of electrons) and the other, as I remember, about 2cm on hour .
He explained it this way: electricity is like a swarm of bees. The forehead flies quickly, but the swarm is quite slow. When the wire is plugged in, the current appears at the other end immediately, by analogy with a hose filled with water. Although we turn on the water slowly, it flows out from the other side right away.
It was quite a long time so I don't remember exactly what it was about, but there is definitely the second slow speed of the current.

It is the speed of the electrons that is slow and the speed of the current is c (analogy to a snake). The electrons do not travel, but push each other so that they themselves have a very slow speed, and the entire "swarm" of electrons is high.

Hmm is the so-called lifting speed. The speed of electrons is not equal to the speed of light (because electrons have a rest mass), it is high, but not so much, the electrons collide with phonons in the metal - that is, the vibrations of the crystal lattice. When a collision occurs, the electron changes direction, it changes its direction after the so-called relaxation time - such a statistically calculated time (Drude, Somerfeld model - a bit bulky tomes).

If you take into account that these paths cause electron wafting and driving on a broken one, the speed of such a current is 2 cm / sec ...

However, if we take into account that if we give 100 electrons on one side of the conductor, they will repel the rest of the electrons in the opposite direction (at the speed of light), therefore the speed of the appearance of the current on the other side of the wire is close to the speed of light. All electrons are indistinguishable. So the electrons must reach the speed of passage equal to the speed of light - that is, the highest possible speed of information flow according to Einstein.

For example, you have a pipe, in the middle you put a bar of the length of that pipe. You place the tube in front of your eyes, then slide the rod with your finger so that you can see it from the other side, the speed at which the front of the rod learns that the rear has been pushed and must "move is equal to the speed of the light ...

It was for the first kind of conductors: metals, graphite, etc.

Let us not forget about electrolytes such as salt in water ... There the speed of the diurnal current is much lower than in metals, where the flow phenomenon involves different principles.

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Welcome back!
As I told the professor about this speed of light, he said that I was stupid and if everyone in the house was healthy, so you are also stupid. And he said that 2cm / s is something closer, but I have yet to get more information, so think about it.
Cheers 600

With such an approach to people who try to help you won't do much ...

I hope that "that's why you are stupid too" was a further quote from the professor.

If the electricity was moving at such a pace, a phone call on the Kraków - Wrocław line would be delayed by about a year (~ 300 days [maybe I made a mistake in my memory calculations, but it would certainly not be possible to make the call]).

Show this text to the professor ...

This is the only reason why the Kraków and Wrocław line has an immediate connection (not counting the delays on the amplifying elements, the switchboard, etc.) because there are electrons in the electric cable - i.e. the carriers of the current, it is like sending a wave from one side of the lake to the other.

If they were not there and the sending of the electron was on the broken line, the line would actually have a delay of 1 year.

The movement of electrons takes place along a broken line, because it is spoiled by vibrations of the ionic lattice in metal - read a bit about metals (you will find out what it is like with lattice vibrations). The vibrations of this network were so complicated that they went beyond classical mechanics, where we have springs, etc. Therefore, new particles, the so-called Phonons that collide with electrons during TAU changing their trajectories in the metal.

I recommend reading Charles Kittel or Mermin / Ashcroft Solid State Physics.

You will solve the problem yourself.