Here's the breakdown:
* The speed of electrons: Electrons themselves drift very slowly through a conductor. We're talking fractions of a millimeter per second!
* The speed of the electric field: The electric field that drives the current travels at nearly the speed of light. This is why you can turn on a light switch and the light comes on almost instantly, even though the electrons themselves are moving slowly.
Here's an analogy: Imagine a long pipe filled with marbles. You push one marble in one end, and almost immediately, a marble pops out the other end. However, the individual marbles themselves move relatively slowly through the pipe.
So, to answer your question directly:
* The individual electrons in an electric current move very slowly.
* The electric field that drives the current travels at nearly the speed of light.
The speed of the electric field is what makes the effects of an electric current appear instantaneous.
