Tim Barber

Objectively speaking, whatever a person in a coma thinks or does not think is irrelevant. (I spent a week in a coma many years ago after a car wreck). 

2 minutes ago, exchemist said:

In an electric current, the electrons move through the conductor very slowly, not at the speed of light. As I understand it, what moves fast through a conductor is any signal, i.e. any change to the rate of flow at one end propagates very fast to the other end, because the electrons in between can be though of as essentially incompressible. 

Since current is a measure of the charge passing a given point per unit time, e.g, amps = Coulombs/sec, a greater current can be achieved by more electrons moving, as well as by a greater speed of motion.

But some of the physicists here may be able to explain better than I can.

 

What I would like to see is numbers for RATE of electron flow. e.g. # of electrons / second passing through a conductor (air in the case of lightning) vs. the number of electrons / second passing through the wires that power you home. The same or not? How many electrons/second are passing a fixed point in each conductor? 

Death is the halting of biological functions which in humans leads to a loss of consciousness (whatever that is). 

The meaning of MY life is to search for answers to these and many other questions.  

I am trying to expand my knowledge of electricity. I always thought that electricity and light move at one constant speed. If this is true, then how can there be a wide range of current flow? I think of current flow as (electrons/second). If this is not true, then what are the limits of speed of electron flow (low and high) through a conductor?