BEGINNING HAM RADIO IS IT YOU NEED TO KNOW! Electronics for Beginners # 5
A novice radio amateur or electronic engineer does not always understand the difference between the electric current and the speed of propagation of the electric field. Although, at first glance, this is not critical and it can be reconciled with this, but in order to lay a reliable basis for further study of electronics, it is still necessary to know how the current flows and its speed.
Electrons in the conductor move relatively slowly compared to the propagation velocity of the electrical current in the conductors, which is 300,000 km / s, that is, equal to the speed of light.
The electrons acquire orderly motion due to the excess of the electric field, which comes along with the new charge carriers from the power source. With each movement of the electron, the electric field changes, which involves more and more charge carriers into this directed motion.