this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2026
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Ad on a DC system, the electrons move dozens of times slower than a person walking. They also don't get anywhere, and power is still delivered.
It's fun to calculate that from a socket to a light bulb it may take something close to a few hours for one electron to get to the bulb, but even then that's an average. Some electrons don't even get to the light bulb ever.
IMO, the more interesting thing is how they are all always moving at a large fraction of the speed of light, but over any large distance, they are that slow.
Things never cancel each other so well on the macroscopic world.
It's kind of shocking, after a lifetime of assuming electrons whiz through wires at the speed of light, to find out they move so slowly that the speed at which they move is referred to as "electron drift."
Hell of a lot of electrons coming out and going in though