I have to admit that my knowledge of physics falls somewhere short of the term "Fermi Velocity". If I'm converting this correctly, this comes out to just a few hundred yards short of about 808 miles per second, a right snappy speed at that.
How do we balance that against the relatively slow rate of travel of current flow in an electrical circuit, measured at 4.62 millimeters / second / volt / meter?
One possible answer is a vast quantity of electrons drifting randomly, and within that a relatively few non-random moving electrons participating in current flow, leaving the overall appearance of relatively slow travel of current flow.
Another possibility, perhaps somewhat more likely, is again a vast quantity of randomly & rapidly drifting electrons, the whole sea of which is drifting slowly towards the positive pole of an outside force (and of course being replenished by the negative terminal).
Attempting some additional reasoning based on what John said earlier, in the one meter long sample piece of copper wire, we can reduce resistance by increasing bandwidth (larger diameter), and we get more electrons to flow (more pathways) but at the same constant speed. On the other hand, if we leave resistance alone at the original valus but increase the voltage applied instead, we end up with the same number of electrons moving but at a faster speed, twice as fast actually, effectively yielding more electrons per second flowing past a given point.
Kinda like on a freeway, more lanes at the same speed gives more cars per hour, same lanes but faster speeds also gives more cars per hour. Bandwidth verses speed.
Sure would be interesting if we could actually see this stuff working, heh?
Radar
