connect 2 different wire gauge to pos and neg speaker terminal

Geoffkait: "Therefore in this wire the electrons are flowing at the rate of 23 µm/s. At 60 Hz alternating current, this means that within half a cycle the electrons drift less than 0.2 μm. In other words, electrons flowing across the contact point in a switch will never actually leave the switch."

to which kijanki replied,

"You’re talking AGAIN about electrons. Electric current moves with the speed of electric charge (electric field) and not the speed of electrons or drift velocity. When you flip a switch electric charge moves thru conductor at the speed of light (remember stacked balls?) magnetic wave follows at the same speed. If electric current moves at the drift velocity then in very long cable electrons at the end would not even move since it would take hours or days for charge to get there."

>>>>>I never said electric current moves with the velocity of electrons. I already said I think electrons are the charge carriers. You are confusing me with someone else perhaps.

then kijanki wrote,

"All electrons along the wire move together instantly like stacked balls. Electric and magnetic fields have to move with the same speed (electro-magnetic field) because one doesn’t exist without the other. Again, imagine pipe filed with ping-pong balls. When you push them at one side of the pipe they will start coming out at the other instantly. When there is no change (DC) electrons move at drift velocity. DC current is proportional to drift velocity while drift velocity is proportional to magnitude of electric field. Any sudden change at the one end of the wire will travel thru the wire at the speed of light and it will arrive almost instantly and not a few days later. It will travel as wave of electric charge inside of the wire (stacked balls) and wave of magnetic field outside of the wire at the same light speed (or close to it)."

>>>>>EM waves travel at light speed but magnetic fields are stationary. Magnetic fields are induced by the current traveling through the wire. It’s the right hand rule. I never said electrons carry the current. And I’ve always said the EM waves are comprised of photons. All EM waves are comprised of photons. That’s why they travel at lightspeed.

Under the influence of an applied voltage/electric field, I believe that ALL electrons do NOT travel axially, in a direction corresponding to the polarity of the applied voltage, just SOME of them do. I believe that some of them continue to move in a random manner, at the Fermi velocity.

Al, Wikipedia definition, I posted before, explains it:

The drift velocity is the average velocity that a particle, such as an electron, attains in a material due to an electric field. It can also be referred to as axial drift velocity. In general, an electron will propagate randomly in a conductor at the Fermi velocity. An applied electric field will give this random motion a small net flow velocity in one direction.

Thanks, Kijanki. Yes, that explains it pretty well. Although I can see how that statement could be misinterpreted. The reference to "in one direction" should say something like "in one direction for a given direction of the electric field," the direction of the electric field of course alternating every half-cycle in the case of AC. Also, the reference to "average velocity" is a bit misleading, because it could be interpreted as meaning that the much faster Fermi velocity of 1570 kilometers/second or so is numerically averaged in, even though (as I mentioned earlier) it cancels out of the average (the "net flow") since it is in random directions.

Best regards,
-- Al

Allow me to summarize. It doesn’t really matter what the velocity of electrons is since they are only the charge carriers. It doesn’t really matter what direction electrons are traveling since they’re only the charge carriers. And compared to the velocity of the EM - even if one considered electrons were moving at Fermi velocity - the relative velocity of electrons is negligible. Recall that the velocity of light (photons) is constant even if it’s measured from a rapidly moving rocket ship. 🚀