Question

• Explain how the model of electricity as electrons moving along a wire is an oversimplification that misrepresents the complex nature of an electric current.

Answer 1

The simplest answer is that we insert an electron at one end of the wire and we observe a series of countless collisions at the other end of the wire.

A different electron from the end of the wire is ejected in same time at the extreme end of the wire but the inserted electron has moved only one or two atom lengths along the wire.

Hence it takes millions of times longer for the intial electron to finally reach the extreme end of the wire.

Hence the answer follows that the model of electricity as electrons moving along a wire is an oversimplification that misrepresents the complex nature of an electric current.