How fast does electricity travel?

Answer 1

The free electrons in metal conductors drift at a rate in the order of millimetres per hour.

Answer 2

I think you'll find that electricity doesn't actually travel at all. Well, it actually travels at 84mm per day!



Because the electrons are already in the wire, they just have to be pushed, it appears to travel at the speed of light, but the actual electrons move at a rate of only 84mm per day. If you had an electric wire 300,000km long and applied an electric current through it, it would take one second for each electron to make one move. This also means that it would take 1 second before the circuit is complete, and the device activates. But, nothing is that long so you can think of it as the speed of light.

See related link below.
An electric current typically travels at about 2/3 of the speed of light in a vacuum. Note that this is the speed at which a signal will propagate; it is NOT the speed of the individual electrons.

Answer 3

Electricity travels at virtually the speed of light, which is approximately 670 million miles per hour (300 million meters per second) in a vacuum. However, in materials like wires, the speed is slower due to factors like resistance and capacitance, typically on the order of fractions of meters per second.

Answer 4

This speed is 299 792 458 m/s in vacuum. This is a conventional accepted value as exactly true.