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It is a very complex phenomenon that can be best described with concepts that deal with aggregate matter taken from quantum chemistry/solid state physics (look up the transition from atom orbitals to molecular orbitals to bands). The classical electron hopping theory is a very primitive abstraction that suits a certain level of education.

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I haven't read the article (yet) but skimmed it. I do think you're right, but I also think the average person's tools to observe it are lacking. Like Plato's Allegory of the Cave. If someone had never experienced something like bodies of water and tried to explain it would be much more difficult that observing and touching. An abstraction that breaks down very quickly, like electron hopping theory, makes it worse.

Is "electron hopping theory" same as the hopping transport mechanism in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charge_transport_mechanisms?

I'm trying to read up on it because I realized my knowledge about electricity is very basic (only first year physics lecture on electricity & Maxwell's equations).

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