Might we say that once an electron leaves the orbit of an atom, since it is negative, it will be attracted towards anything more positive and repelled away from other negatives. If the positive charge towards which it is moving changes locations, the direction of the electron travel will change accordingly. In the presence of an AC voltage, in which the locations of positive and negative charges swap places repeatedly, the electron will be forced to change directions (towards the positive) at twice the AC frequency.
Dave - I might certainly be wrong, but I don't believe electrons travel at the speed of light. I've heard this before, but since sub atomic particles are considered to be mostly particles (as opposed to waves), it is essentially impossible.
From what I've read, particle accelerators manage to accelerate particles up to some high fraction of the speed of light in order to generate extreemly high energy collisions. In ordinary matter, such collisions occur all the time, and at much lower energy levels.
Radar
