How can a single ethernet cable running to a gigabit switch provide multiple connections with gigabit speeds?
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A network switch is like a traffic junction with stop lights. You can have a 4 way or 6 way or 100 way junction, but at any one time only the roads that don’t crash into each other can go.
no car needs to change lanes (no need to squeeze two lanes into one) while going through the junction, so technically the bandwidth of the junction is no different than the roads going in and out of it. if the light is green you can coast through with no loss (maybe you will slow down a little, known as “overhead”) but on a total time basis, the junction does cause traffic to slow down because due to the shared nature of a junction, eventually somebody needs to wait for somebody else.
a network switch is exactly like a traffic junction, but a very fast and efficient one that can switch the lights many times a second to let a few cars go at a time. to go into more detail, some more advanced switches are like traffic cops who can decide to let some special cars go earlier and make other cars wait longer(prioritzation) or even designate certain lanes to be carpool lanes so all vehicles on it get priority.
tldr; when you’re allowed to go, you can go at your usual speed. when you are not allowed to go, your speed is zero for that entire time waiting. because electronics, this stop and go can happen thousands of times a second. but real people only care about average, and on average, if all lanes are busy, you will obviously not be getting your usual speed.
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