Answered
In Physics
What is faster the speed of sound or the speed of electricity?
Electricity. Sound, whether in air, water or a solid such as steel, is a compression wave that moves atoms back and forth. It is slow. In air, the speed of sound is 343 mete…rs per second (1,126 ft/s), or 1,236 kilometers per hour (768 mph). It takes 3 seconds to travel one kilometer or 5 seconds to travel one mile. It is 4 times faster than that in water and almost 15 times faster in iron. Electricity involves the motion of electrons, very small and light with a significant long range Coulomb force between them. Electricity can be pictured as moving electrons which push against their neighboring electrons that in turn push against more distant neighboring electrons and this all continues for distances much much greater than the region occupied by a single electron. In some ways, this propagation by pushing against the neighbors is basically similar for both electricity and sound. But, for electricity the masses of the moving electrons are much much smaller than the masses of atoms and forces on electrons are longer ranged and strong. Electrical disturbances on a conductor travel at almost the speed of light, but depends on the geometry of the conductor. For normal wires and normal electrical current such as used by people in everyday life, the speed can be over 95% of the speed of light. The speed of light is 300,000 kilometers per second. For other arrangements of conductors (waveguides) it can be much slower and a speed of 200,000 kilometers per second would not be surprising. One is not far off if one says that the speed of light is 1 million times faster than the speed of sound. (MORE)