How does electricty travel through a wire?

Answer 1

Electricity does not "travel through a wire".

Electricity is defined as: the energy made available by the flow of electric charge through a conductor

What passes through the wire (also called a conductor) is electric CHARGE, with the driving force behind the passage being electric POTENTIAL (also known as voltage).

How it works:
- a potential difference is set up between the ends of a conductor by attaching a voltage source (like a generator or battery) to one end.
- this difference gives a "nudge" to the free electrons in the metallic conductor, making them vibrate a little more and bump into the next electron down the line.
- as the wavefront of energy is transferred through the free electrons, the measurable quantity of CURRENT (defined as charge-per-unit-time) can be observed.
- at the far end, the energy is translated back into something useful for the 'load' device ... which may or may not be actual current and voltage.

Answer 2

The speed of electricity through a wire is a bit of a complex question. It
depends on whether you are considering the rate at which electrons
themselves flow along a wire or whether you are considering the rate at
which an electrical signal passes along a wire.

In the first case, electrons themselves move quite slowly - about 100
micrometres per second (or, from another perspective, 1 metre in about 2.8
hours!) Clearly, this is not what we observe when we turn on a light switch.

Ideally, electricity moves at the speed of light. Imagine a tube full of
marbles. If you push a marble in at one end of the tube, another marble pops
out the other end almost instantaneously. Even if the individual marbles are
moving very slowly, the marble "wavefront" is travelling at a very high
velocity.

In the real world, things are not quite so tidy. Electricity flowing through
a gas, or having to work its way through electronic components such as
resistors or capacitors, can be slowed to speeds of 60 to 80 percent of
light speed. However, that's still fast enough that you can safely expect
the light to come on as soon as you flick the switch.

Answer 3

A wire is often made of copper, a electrical conductor with free electrons. The wire must be connected to a difference in voltage, a battery for example. The positive pole of the battery is filled with positive ions, atoms that have lost a free electron. These electrons (negative charge) is at the negative battery pole, stucked onto atoms, creating negative ions. When you connect the wire across the battery poles, the copper atom that first senses the positive pole, leaves the free electron to that pole, creating a "hole" in that atom, transforming it to a positive ion. The next copper atom senses that the first one is a positive ion, missing an electron. The next one leaves it´s free electron to the first one. The second one is now a positive ion itself. this goes on and on. The speed of reaction is the speed of light, but the actual electron traveling speed is much less.

Answer 4

If you say electricity=energy the energy which travel through the metal wire get lost into it by different means like heat em radiation etc.But the useful power which is delivered to the load get transferred from source to load is carried by the field around the electrical wire. And electrical wire only support those field.

Answer 5

Electricity is a flow of electrons. And metal has an abundant source of free electrons among the molecules.
Electrons travel at the speed of light, the speed of electricity, 186,000 miles per second, by jumping from one electron to the next. From one metal molecule to the next.

WHY, THANK YOU very much Miss Conway.

Answer 6

it starts at the socket and ends up at the other end of the wire.

Answer 7

I agree with TrevorTrillion