I thought that too. My mistake was in confusing the speed of the "wave" or signal (which travels at about 50% to 99% the speed of light) and the speed of the electron, which is quite slow.

I think I'm confused about waves because of early childhood text books that had person A's mouth, then some lines increasing in size (like the lines on WIFI symbols) and then person B's ear. I now think of waves as moving forward, pushing forward, rather than up and down.

Is there a version of "Maths for mums and dads" that covers science?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Maths-Mums-Dads-Mike-Askew/dp/022408...