What makes electricity want to move? And when it does, is it the same electrons along the way? Or is it pushing electrons out of atoms in like a domino effect?
In: Physics
The electrons do physically migrate within the wires but so incredibly slowly that the effect is negligible for most practical purposes. we’re talking like inches per year in your household wiring.
as for what motivates them, they repel each other due to the electrical force, which is fundamental. it just sort of is, like gravity. The upshot is that if you can get an excess of them in one place then much like a gas under pressure they will want to “squirt” out. This is the spark you get from static electricity. The electrons are jumping away from you (or towards you depending on your charge state). a battery is the same, it has an excess of electrons at the negative terminal, and an electron deficit at positive terminal. Yes, electrons flow out of the negative terminal of a battery. Scientists assigned the terminals names before they understood the physical motion of electrons.
And yes electrons have mass but it’s so vanishingly small that for most practical purposes they can be considered mass-less. You can’t practically weigh a battery to see if it’s charged, e.g.
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