which  is  the  faster  ,  the   light   or  electricty  as  they  seem  to    operate  instantly?
409960
Light is faster because electricity has to interact with the atoms it finds as it moves along a wire. Electricity is only a BIT slower than light, but you cannot tell the difference in real-life situations.
379094
Think of Einstiens theory of relitivity E=((MC)squared) Where C = the speed of light and M = th electrons flowing from the electric source to the bulb = E (the ability to do work) wich results in theroy the light bending around the vehicle eirgo the light bends becaus both the light and the vechile are travling at the same speed.
30733
If you were traveling at the speed of light, whether or not your lights work would probably be the least of your concerns.\n\nIn reality, the laws of physics prevent any object from traveling faster than the speed of light.\n\nSomething that is perhaps just as interesting, however, is what happens as your vehicle APPROACHES the speed of light.  Take a look at some of the work done by Einstein to get a general idea on that.
82937
The electric company generates (makes) electricty, which they send through wires. These wires go to every house. In some places, you can seem them on the street, but in most places they are underground.\n\nWhen you flip a switch, your are connecting the lightbulb to one of these wires. So electricity flows from the wire to the lightbulb. When you close the switch, you disconnect the 2 wires.\n\nThat is what happens. How electricty is made, and how lightbulbs and switches works is a bit more complicated, but for that I suggest Wikipedia:\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity\n\nThe basic idea behind generating electricity though, is that you are freeing electrons from atoms, which then go to other atom/s that absorb them.
1187636
Light always travels at the same speed in a vacuum, the speed changes ever so slightly when it has to go through a different medium (water e.g.) but its so fast to begin with you wouldn't really notice it. 300,000 kilometers per second is beyond human comprehension, I mean you can only imagine how fast that is, you can't experience it or 'know' it.
301342
Not nearly as long if you use nonels rather than electric. They are safer too.
48947
Darkness is just the absence of light. Darkness is always there. But in theoritical sense, it should be as fast as light  because when the light goes off suddenly, darkness can creep in immediately.\n\nBelow is an interesting thread i found online in an australian website.\n\n"If the speed of light is known, what is the speed of darkness? The two opposing schools of thought that have developed are:\n\n1. Darkness does not move, it is always present, and light is layed on top of it. (As an analogy, consider a table as being darkness, a tablecloth as being light: when you pull the tablecloth off, the table itself (darkness) doesn't move).\n\n2. Darkness moves at the same speed as light, and it meets the laws of motion in that Darkness is the equal and opposite reaction for the action of the movement of light. "\n\nCourtesy:- http://www2.abc.net.au/science/k2/stn-archive1/posts/topic1942.shtm
1099266
The points made by the previous responders are reasonable. In the context of communication, speed more often means bits per unit time, rather than physical speed which is distance per unit time. Electricity does travel very fast in the *latter sense*, close to the speed of light - but what is it about an electrical circuit which limits the number of bits which can be transmitted per second?\n\nSuppose you tried to send information by switching on and off the power to an electric fan being observed by someone else. It takes five or ten seconds for the fan to slow down or regain normal speed after it's been switched off or on, so it would be impossible to communicate much more than 3 or 4 bits per minute reliably using such a system. If you tried to do it faster there would be no change observable at the other end.\n\nThere's a similar limitation for any pair of copper wires. If L is the inductance and R the resistance, it takes a time roughly t ~ L/R for the current to drop at one end when the voltage has been switched off at the other end. The magnetic field surrounding the wires keeps the current going just like the momentum of the fan blades.\n\nThere's nothing much that can be done about this except for changing the structure of the cable. For example the pair of copper wires can be replaced by a coaxial cable in which one conductor forms a cylinder surrounding the other. The magnetic fields produced by the two currents tend to cancel which substantially reduces the inductance L, allowing a much faster (bits/second) speed.\n\nWhen most of the telephone network was implemented there was no reason to use coax since a pair of copper wires works fine for voice (audio frequencies = roughly 10K-100K bit/sec), although these will probably be upgraded if the phone companies are allowed to compete with the cable companies. \n\nFiber optic cable also has a very high bandwidth (bits/second) ... but your question is specifically about electricity.
945004
Some are photo electric...they turn light energy into electricity.\n\nSome are heat collectors...they store the heat and transfer it to the hot water heater.
413107
I will have to answer your question in two parts.\n\nElectrons in a piece of metal move around randomly with speeds of about 10^5 m/s. This is just the thermal velocity associated with the energy the electrons possess without any electric field present.\nWhen an electric field is applied, the electrons acquire a miniscule drift velocity. This velocity is miniscule compared to both the thermal velocity AND the speed of light.\nElectrons flowing as a current have speeds no where near the speed of light, whether you speak about the thermal or drift velocities.\n\nHOWEVER, the SIGNAL DOES travel close to the speed of light. Signal speeds are typically about 2/3 the speed of light. Just do a simple coaxial cable calculation to find a wave equation, and you can find the conduction speed.\nThe reason for this is that the Electric field applied can cause electrons ALL THROUGHOUT the circuit to move, and thus the speed of the signal is greater than the drift speed of the electrons.\n\nThe other answers are wrong in saying that ELECTRONS travel close to the speed of light.\nIt is correct to say that ELECTRICAL SIGNALS travel close to the speed of light, however.
775590
"...What makes the light go so fast?..." Asking why light travels as fast as it does is a useless question because there's no answer. Light behaves as it does because that's just the way it worked out in our universe.\n\n"...What exactly is the definition of light?..." Light is electromagnetic radiation in many forms. For example radio signals, radar beams, lasers, visible light, xrays, etc.,. Light can behave both as a series of waves (..sort of like sound waves), or as a stream of individual particles. Light is said to be invariant, that is it moves at only one velocity regardless of how fast its source might move. The carrier of light energy is the 'photon' which has a tiny mass, but only when its not moving, and since light is never motionless under usual conditions it actually has no mass.\n\n"...Is only one single atom or electron going at 186000 miles per hour considered as light?..." No! Atoms and electrons and other subatomic particles all have mass, and nothing with mass can move at the speed of light.
373426
Well, since, as stated before, darkness is the absence of light, it travels at the exact speed of light in a given medium. For example, if you turn a light on in a darkened room, it gets bright very quickly (exactly how quickly will depend on the type of light bulb or the colour of the light you use), but when you turn it off, it gets dark at the same rate. Though darkness isn't something that really "travels", what you're measuring is how fast light dissipates, which is at the speed of light!
364039
depends on the medium they are transmitted through- if current in a wire, light in a vacuum is faster, if electron flow through a vacuum, like a radio signal- nearly same speed with light having a tiny edge.
133450
well, the usual rules of physics at such speed don't apply. so when you turn the headlights, the light will travel from them at approximately the usual speen of light, and i guess you won't notice anything unusual..\nfor more information check the subject at wikipedia. and the following subject: Constant velocity from all reference frames
182076
RAPID, of course.\n:-)
297308
Many different types are there. Involving electronic swithes or mechanical. Here is the description of a mechanical type:\n\n1. Take a flashlight that produces very bright light.\n2. Take a table/floor fan.\n3. Place the flashlight towards the fan's blades from behind the fan.\n4. Turn the fan ON.\n\nYou have strobe light. You can change the speed of the blinks by changing the speed of the fan.
231306
Ashton Family, where did you learn science?  E=mc^2 is a mass to energy conversion equation (incomplete by the way) developed by Einsten.  Nothing in our universe can travel faster the the speed of light.\n\nMessages from neurons travel faster that any other means in the body.  They are electrical impulses and thus travel at slightly slower than light (the neurons have to receive and retransmit the signal).\n\nTo figure out what is correct and why it is the fastest, lets try some logic.  Assume blood flow is the fastest, it must therefore travel faster than electrical impulses.  If this was the case, you'll have friction between the bloody flowing and the veins and arteries carrying them.  Since we don't feel burning sensations in our body this must not be the case.  Thus blood flow is not the fastest.  \n\nHormone diffusion.  Hormones are carried in our blood stream.  And we've already proven that blood flow is not faster than electrical impulses, so hormone diffusion must not travel faster than blood flow, and so hormone diffusion is not the fastest.\n\nMuscle contraction.  This is the result of neuron stimulation.  If muscles could move as fast as electrical impulses, they would be moving at light speed.  Try shaking your hand back and forth as fast as possible.  If you could move your hand at light speed through the air your hands would be burned to a crisp due to the friction.  Since you are unable to perform this function, muscle stimulation is not as fast as electrical impulses and thus again we prove that muscle stimulation is not the fastest communication throughout the body.\n\nWe've eliminated all possibilities except neuron impulse transmission.  We know that this is electrical transmission and we know that it is possible for this to be transmitting at the speed of light.  Therefore this must be the fasted communication through the body.\n\nBy the way the example that someone gave, about feeling heat and jerking away from it.  The time delay is not due to neuron transmission delay.  Something has to make sense of the nerve impulses.  In our case it is our spinal column that says "hey these signals mean the hand is touching something hot!".  The spinal column is "smart" enought to know this is dangerous and says "let go".  The nerve impulses still are travelling to the brain.  The brain does a lot more analysis of the signals, and by this time, it's figured out location, distance, which fingers, how long, how hot etc etc etc, the hand has already jerked away.  And just now you are feeling how hot, it is.