Questions on electron transport in metals

[Mike]

OK, I get it now, I was wasting my time talking to a crank.
Bye crank.

Mike

 

[John Fields]

OK, I get it now, I was wasting my time talking to a crank.
Bye crank.

 

[Franz Heymann]

Mike, the speed of the carrier in a wire is the electron drift
velocity, which is ridiculously slow in "normal" cases. The
speed of information is close to the speed of light. That's
all I was trying to convey.

That is incorrect in detail. the quantity "c" is the phase velocity.
The speed of information transfer is the group velocity.

In free space, TEM waves are propagated without dispersion. In that
case both those velocities are c.

In a wave guide supporting a wave with a longitudinal component of
either E or H, those two velocities differ from one another and
neither of them is equal to c, even when the guide is evacuated.

Franz

 

[Franz Heymann]

No, I'm just a simple engineer; I believe what the physicists tell me.
If you know of a counter-case, we'd all like to hear about it.

There is a proof, so you are on safe ground.

Franz

 

[Franz Heymann]

It is? This seems very un-intuitive to me.

That is irrelevant. It just means that you need to hone your
intuition.
{)

Dont know why, it just seems
wrong.

I would assure you in all sincerity that it is quite correct.

Sure, sound is vibration in a medium (?) so it kind-of makes
sense. I guess the speed of sound in very hard materials is very

high?

Yes. That is so.

Franz