Electric Current

What happens when a current flows through a conductor? In HSC Physics students learn that the resistance of a conductor is due to the collisions of the conduction electrons with the atoms in the conductor. These collisions transfer energy from the electrons to an increase in the vibrational energy of the atoms causing an increase in temperature of the conductor. What would be an estimate of the drift speed of conduction electrons through a metal;  1 mm/s, 1 m/s, 1000 m/s or 1,000,000 m/s? The answer is 1 mm/s. When a light globe is switched on an electric field is sent along the connecting wire at a speed of about one-third of the speed of light and this field pushes electrons at the far end of the wire through first, so the globe appears to glow immediately. Quantum mechanics also teaches us that electrons behave as waves. The electron waves are scattered by the irregularly spaced atoms in the conductor which are displaced from a regular pattern due to their thermal vibration.