The subject of the speed of the electricity is not as obvious as it does not appear.
Two phenomena should be distinguished:
- information rate,
- the speed of the loads.
Information rate: corresponds at the speed of starting of the electrons
(or charge carrier ).
To illustrate this difference, let us take the image of a file of cars stopped with a red light. When fire passes to the green, the first car starts, then a second after the second car starts, still a second and it is the third which moves… If it is estimated that there is a car all the 4 Mètre S, it is seen that information moves at 4 m/S. This speed is very different the speed of a car which starts is approximately 1 km/h, representative 0,28 m/s.
Information rate
For the electric current, the information rate is the Speed of light in the medium, that is to say approximately 226 000 km/s in water (electric current in a saline solution) and 273 000 km/s in copper