Skip to main content

All Questions

4 votes
3 answers
22k views

How can I calculate the wave propagation speed in a copper wire?

First of all: I am a computer science student, so I don't have much knowledge of physics. So please keep your answers simple. I recently learned something about circuit design and its problems (...
Martin Thoma's user avatar
45 votes
5 answers
61k views

Speed of light vs speed of electricity

If I arranged an experiment where light raced electricity what would be the results? Let's say a red laser is fired at the same time a switch is closed that applies 110 volts to a 12 gauge loop of ...
Lambda's user avatar
  • 4,711
11 votes
4 answers
17k views

Is a signal traveling through fiber faster than a signal traveling through copper?

Does the transmission medium affect the speed of a signal? For instance does light traveling through a fiber cable get a bit from $A \implies B$ faster than copper can transmit a bit the over the same ...
Pwninstein's user avatar