2006-08-17 06:40:18 · 16 answers · asked by brian f 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Electrical current is characterized by 'hole flow'. Basically, an electron is removed from an atom, creating an open orbital or hole. An electron from a neighboring atom jumps into this 'hole' and starts a cascading effect as electrons jump from atom to atom.
The electrons themselves could not flow from your outlet to the lamp like water in a river. However, they can jump from one atom to another very quickly making it appears as though the electrons are flowing.
2006-08-17 06:59:46 · answer #1 · answered by The Q 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Yes, electrons do move along a wire when there is an electric current, and their speed is called the "Drift Velocity" given by the following formula:
V(drift) = I/(nqA)
where I is the current, n is the number of charge carriers per unit volume, q is the charge of the electron, and A is the cross-sectional area.
The electric current is moving at around the speed of light, but the electrons move much more slowly because the electrons collides with atoms in the wire and other electrons as they move,
2006-08-17 07:07:15 · answer #2 · answered by PhysicsDude 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. By definition, a current is the amout of charge going through a a region at a given time.
Given that electrons are charges, the presence of a current means the electrons are moving from one point to another.
Which also implies that if you have a current, and a certain diameter of wire (or anything carrying the current), we can find out how fast the current is. and this is NOWHERE near the speed of light.
2006-08-17 07:08:20 · answer #3 · answered by dennis_d_wurm 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, but, this may surprise you, not at the speed of light. Instead, the electrons migrate rather slowly towards the positive end of the current carrying wire.
What travels at the speed of light (which depends on the medium it is traveling through), is the electron wave, which carries that thing we call electrical energy. Because the energy wave is limited to the speed of light, we are quickly approaching the limit in computer processing frequency. To use an anecdote to demonstrate this limit.
Suppose you live in computerland. You, an electric wave, have a message you want to take to your neighbor. But because the message you carry will be useless if the neighbor does not get it before dark, you must get to your neighbor's place before dark
When the light-dark cycle is 24 hours (the computer processing cycle), you have no sweat getting to your neighbor's place walking as fast as you can (the speed of light). But if the light-dark cycle were to suddenly to become a matter of seconds, there would be no way to get to your neighbor before darkness fell. In which case, the message you were carrying would become meaningless.
Similarly, in a real computer, when the process cycle gets too fast, the electrical waves cannot get to where they were going before a new cycle begins. The information content in those waves would be lost. We are at that threshold where central processors are cycling too fast for ordinary wire transmissions of information in electrical waves. Other means, like optical fibers, in which the speed of light is faster than electron waves through wire, are being implemented.
That's like allowing you, in computerland, to run rather than walk. But, clearly, even that will have a limit to how fast the light-night cycle can go. So they are looking at other means for transmitting information...like molecule to molecule or atom to atom transmission where there is nothing carrying the information (no wire or fiber for example) in between the sender and the receiver.
2006-08-17 07:11:47 · answer #4 · answered by oldprof 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
electrons move from a lower potential to higher potentiel reverse to the direction of electric current and that is what causes current to flow through a conductor
2006-08-17 07:05:54 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. Current is defined by the movement of electrons. More specifically dq/dt, where q is defined as the electron charge.
2006-08-17 06:48:39 · answer #6 · answered by gtn 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes offcourse, Thats what electricity means - conduction of electrons
2006-08-17 07:29:16 · answer #7 · answered by tuhinrao 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes
2006-08-17 06:45:06 · answer #8 · answered by Professor Chris 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes, that is the very definition of current. However, the notion that they are going at near-light speed through a wire is simply not true.
2006-08-17 06:46:45 · answer #9 · answered by what_m_i_doing 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In fact they do but not at the speed of electricity.
2006-08-17 06:47:11 · answer #10 · answered by BobbyD 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋