Re: electron mass in an electrical circuit
From: BW (bjorn_at_sparta.lu.se)
Date: 11/07/04
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Date: Sun, 7 Nov 2004 13:44:58 +0000 (UTC)
Dave Cutler wrote:
> This thread is very likely to be badly misinformed but anyway here
> goes...
>
> In an electrical circuit electrons travel at a significant
> proportion to the speed of light, in a super cooled circuit
> significantly faster ... so why doesn't the mass of the wire start to
> reach infinity. I know that this is probably a stupid question but
> tolerate me!
Individual electrons don't move very quickly down a wire. They move
something like a couple of millimeters per second I think. However the
EM field disturbance travels down the wire at a much higher speed,
approaching the speed of light. Thus there is no need to accelerate any
electrons to near the speed of light.
Think of Newtons cradle - you know, the toy with a couple of metal
balls hanging in wires and you drop one on the edge, the one on the
other edge will fly out - even if the balls in the middle don't really
move (actually this is not just an analogy, mechanics is really EM
between molecules).
/BW
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