connect 2 different wire gauge to pos and neg speaker terminal

kijanki wrote,

"Back to our analogy with balls stacked in the tube - last ball will start moving the same moment as first ball (they push each other). That’s electric charge moving (electric current)."

No, actually that analogy intimates that current travels instantaneously, which cannot (rpt cannot) be true. I mean unless you’re invoking action at a distance. Current moves at *near lightspeed* which means current must be photons, no? The electrons are only charge carriers, they're not (rpt not) the charge per se.

The "electron drift" IS the electron velocity.

No, it is not.  Electron drift is AVERAGE speed of all electrons.  Individual electrons move fast at about 1% of speed of light even without electric field (Fermi Velocity).

No, actually that analogy intimates that current travels instantaneously, which cannot (rpt cannot) be true.

Line of balls is simplification of lattice of electrons that is disturbed at one end. As I mention before connection between electrons is not a physical one.  Electrons poses electrical charge and repel each other.  It takes time for disturbance of the lattice to travel thru wire.

Thus electrons are charge carriers, they are not the charge per se.

Electrons poses the charge - it is called Elementary Charge.  There are two forces between electrons - gravitational and Coulomb (electrostatic) force.  Gravitational is attractive but is very, very small in comparison to Coulomb repulsive force, that exist exactly because electrons have charge.

How could Drift Velocity be the average electron velocity? That would mean some electrons travel *even slower* than one cm per hour. That’s not a typo. One cm per hour. And it would also mean that no (rpt no) electrons travel very fast. Otherwise, the average velocity would be much higher. If it doesn’t make sense it’s not true. In fact, electrons don't have to move at all for the whole thing to work. 

Gentlemen, I believe that at this point we are all on the same page regarding what occurs when an electrical signal propagates. To the extent that there is disagreement I believe it just revolves around terminology, and its interpretation.

Regarding "how could Drift Velocity be the average electron velocity?" I think that if the word "average" is changed to the word "net" we could all agree. At least I hope so. The word "net" in this context implying that random electron movements at Fermi velocity would cancel out of the drift velocity calculation, with electron movement caused by the applied voltage remaining in the calculation.

Also, regarding the mention in the article that Jim quoted to the effect that drift velocity is a function of wire thickness, that is correct, and related specific calculations can be seen in the Wikipedia article on drift velocity I linked to earlier.

Also, Kijanki, thanks for the excellent and very informative perspective you provided a few posts back on the Poynting Vector, E and H fields, etc.

Jim, re your Fluke 87 multimeter, I have an 87V I purchased a couple of years ago, which I assume is a similar but more recent model. Great meter, although certainly not cheap (I think I paid around $375 for it). When the tips of the leads on mine are held together it reads either 0.1 ohms or 0.2 ohms, depending on exactly how the tips are held against each other. I don’t know what the gauge of the leads is, but given that the total length of the two leads is about 8 feet I suspect the lead resistance is a significant contributor to the 0.1 ohms, together with round-off due to the limited resolution.

I previously had a small Triplett model 310 analog multimeter, which was ridiculously inaccurate (e.g. it indicated my AC as being around 95 volts; the Fluke indicates about 118 or 119 depending on time of day, etc). Which was surprising because I had read that many electricians use that particular Triplett model. Guess I just had a bad example of it.

Regarding fuse resistance, you might find the information on page 2 of this Littelfuse datasheet to be of interest. For the 4 amp 250 volt slow blow 6.3 x 32 mm glass fuse which is among the many listed, the "cold" resistance (meaning the resistance with negligible current being conducted) is indicated as 0.0311 ohms. So for a design which puts say half the rated max current through it the voltage drop would be a bit more than 0.06 volts.

Best regards,
-- Al

Al, sorry, but I prefer to not (rpt not) sign up to your explanation, either. For the same reason, actually, that I gave for not (rpt) agreeing with the drift velocity being defined as the average velocity. I.e., it doesn’t make sense. Please don’t put words in my mouth. If you guys want to agree to that explanation feel free to knock yourselves out. 

One thing I will sign up to is that if anything is traveling down the conductor it's photons, not electrons. Free free to concur with comment,  concur without comment or non concur.