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Ask the community of saidit a question!
Saidit, what's your favorite fun fact?
submitted 5 years ago by Hellojoshua from self.AskSaidIt
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[–]magnora7 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun - 5 years ago (8 children)
Electrons move through a wire at about a centimeter an hour. The signal travels in the empty "holes" where electrons can go, and the holes can travel at 1/3 the speed of light. But the electrons only move 1 cm per hour. That still blows my mind.
[–][deleted] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun - 5 years ago* (7 children)
I remember being like what when my phys teacher told me that in high school. It's like if you move a 1 meter long stick the atoms don't move 1 meter, but the signal does. http://wiki.c2.com/?SpeedOfElectrons
Edit: Edited for clarity.
[–][deleted] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun - 5 years ago (5 children)
Thanks this part did it for me:
Wondering how electrons can be so slow and still have electricity go so fast? Imagine a long plastic tube filled with ping-pong balls. You gently press on the ball at one end so that a different ball falls out the other. Both the information that you had pressed, and the energy to dislodge the ball, travel much faster than the ball you pressed.
[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun - 5 years ago (3 children)
Want something which will really screw with your mind? https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/21122/if-i-move-a-long-solid-stick-can-i-send-message-fastest-than-light.
Turns out that the atoms in the stick move as a matter wave with a speed limited by the speed of light, with the surprising consequence that the rigidity of a material is limited by the speed of light.
[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun - 5 years ago (2 children)
Yeah the shock wave moves down the stick at the speed of sound in that material. In extremely rigid materials the speed of sound approaches the speed of light, but can never surpass it.
[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun - 5 years ago (1 child)
It's why a perfectly rigid material is impossible.
[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun - 5 years ago (0 children)
Good point. I suppose anything that's "material" and has rest mass can't travel at the speed of light by definition
Yes exactly. I like the analogy of a row of movie seats. If there's an empty seat at one end of the row, if everyone stands up and moves one seat over, the empty seat moves to the other end, but the people only moved one seat. So the hole moved quickly while the people moved slowly.
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[–]magnora7 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun - (8 children)
[–][deleted] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun - (7 children)
[–][deleted] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun - (5 children)
[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun - (3 children)
[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun - (2 children)
[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun - (1 child)
[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun - (0 children)
[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun - (0 children)