electron travel speed

rolmops

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I am trying to explain to my son that in spite of the fact that electrons travel at very close to lightspeed,it may take a single electron about half an hour to travel through 3 feet of wire.The important thing I forgot is the distance/diameter/material resistance formula.Can somebody please help me out???
 

--GQ--

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Re: electron travel speed

I'm confused. Do you want the formula for the speed of light or the speed of electrons travel thru a conductor? <br /><br />Equation #1 is speed of light. Not sure why you need it. There are no variables. It is constant thru out. But if you want to find the speed of certain wave with known frequency,, you can use the same formula. Frequency must be converted to Time first.<br /><br />Equation #2 is speed of electrons thru a conductor. Now you're opening a can of whop azz. How old is your son? This kind of stuff is NOT for kids. They will go crazy.<br /><br />
speedofelectron.png
 

--GQ--

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Re: electron travel speed

Froggy crack open ur math book (physics, calculus). It's in there. That stuff was taught in high school. OOOhhh thats right i forgot, you were too busy courting Little Sue.. :D :D :D <br /><br /><br />And yea i remember you said something about my avatar. I have you know, the back seat of that car seen more action than a camera man on a porn set... :D :D :D
 

ebbtide176

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Re: electron travel speed

just to add a really ignorant point of view, i don't see how an electron can take 1/2hr to travel 3ft in a conductor(you said wire)<br /><br />i guess you're talking temps here...electrons are either agitated or not, very seldom stable(for wiring). but i haven't had to follow electron flow in a long time. lol<br /><br />now i can only think of maybe a battery getting a trickle charge in my personal visual, so tell us more. :)
 

rolmops

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Re: electron travel speed

Thank you GQ,it is the second formula and my 14 year old can understand the idea and with a little help calculate it as well.<br />The basic idea is that a drop of water will take a certain amount of time to travel through a garden hose and come out on the other end.While doing this it has pushed the water ahead of it out of the hose.The same holds true for electrons in a conductor.The difference is that the water drop will travel in a fairly straight line,while the electron travels in circles around countless nuclea.
 

rodbolt

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Re: electron travel speed

ugh oh,<br /> next will be the electron wobble theory :) :)
 

Gone

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Re: electron travel speed

One of my fav visual aids is the 11.5" rope.<br /><br />What's a nanosecond? 11.5 inches! <br />(The distance light travels in one nanosecond.)
 

rodbolt

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Re: electron travel speed

but to count nano seconds requires removal of my shoes :) <br /> I would rather have a beer and discuss electron wobble and the white noise it generates :)
 

Gone

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Re: electron travel speed

I'm not sure that Bob Pease endorses the Electron Wobble theory. I think that he throws it overboard along with Fuzzy Logic.
 

heycods

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Re: electron travel speed

Originally posted by RubberFrog:<br /> I still say he's a smart mofo! ;)
Im with ya on that F ;) :D rog, he had to be able to read just to copy that outa a book.
 

--GQ--

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Re: electron travel speed

Ahhhh, so much love. Not enough time to soak it in. Dude it's not a Dell. get it straight.<br /><br /><br />Electrons don't wobble. They ORBIT around the nucleus.
 

--GQ--

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Re: electron travel speed

What's a MOFO? Is that slang for Mother Flower?
 

--GQ--

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Re: electron travel speed

Originally posted by ebb:<br /> just to add a really ignorant point of view, i don't see how an electron can take 1/2hr to travel 3ft in a conductor(you said wire)<br /><br />i guess you're talking temps here...electrons are either agitated or not, very seldom stable(for wiring). but i haven't had to follow electron flow in a long time. lol<br /><br />now i can only think of maybe a battery getting a trickle charge in my personal visual, so tell us more. :)
ebb, no such thing as ignorant point of view. Hard as it is to believe, scientists have proven that electrons flow at different speed thru different types of conductors. Ideally atoms with one valence electron on the outer ring make good conductors since they are more willing to lose it. Also the # of electrons and amperage present determine the speed of flow. I deally gold and copper are the best natural conductors on earth. Most of the electronic circuitry's on NASA space craft are gold. Ever wonder why they cost so much? Who cares we're paying for it.
 

rolmops

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Re: electron travel speed

GQ.The orbits are very erratic and hardly predictable especially in the single ring orbits of for instance hydrogene .The constant collision courses of these single electrons make for the most erratic orbits you can imagine.So maybe you can rightfully call it an orbit in a very dense nucleus with plenty of rings but at the lowest numbers on the table we can see lots of "wobbling".<br />Anyways, this would bring us closer to the London forces and organic chemistry,so it has very little to do with the original question of this thread.
 

rodbolt

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Re: electron travel speed

see :) <br /> quite a bit is still just theory, however the smart mofos are learning more and more. thats how the figgured out a super conductor, now we have to figgure out a practicle application for it.
 

KRS

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Re: electron travel speed

Originally posted by --GQ--:<br /> ... the back seat of that car seen more action than a camera man on a porn set... :D :D :D
.... okay?<br /><br />Purpose unknown... maybe self-flagellation?
 

RubberFrog

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Re: electron travel speed

Originally posted by KRS:<br />
Originally posted by --GQ--:<br /> ... the back seat of that car seen more action than a camera man on a porn set... :D :D :D
.... okay?<br /><br />Purpose unknown... maybe self-flagellation?
Apparently he has someone else doing the flagellating for him... :D
 
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