How Does Electricity Travel Through a Wire?
How Does Electricity Travel Through a Wire? Electricity comes into our buildings on copper or aluminum wires from giant electric generators in power stations. The electric current produced is a moving stream of tiny parts of atoms called electrons.
When electricity flows through a wire, the electrons from the billions of atoms that make up the wire move from one atom to the next, where they push other electrons on to the next atom.
The electrons move only a few inches a second. But the electric signal moves almost as fast as the speed of light – 186,000 miles a second. Electricity travels through a wire at fast speed and is capable of powering anything from a light bulb to a laptop.