I was in a reddit argument with someone who said electrons didn't flow at the speed of light in a circuit. Then he linked the Wikipedia page for drift velocity and defeated me in one fell swoop. Now, my entire understanding of electricity and electrons has been thrown upside down. I thought that electron flow in a circuit was essentially like pushing a chain of balls that each bounce off each other, and since electrons travel near the speed of light, this was why electricity was nearly instantaneous in a circuit. But, it seems that the electrons simply carry the electromagnetic wave coming from the power source by use of their own electrical field. Since electromagnetic waves can travel at the speed of light, is this how the effects of electricity travel independently of the electron drift velocity?
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