[grey_whiskers]

Electricity flows through wires as a stream of electrons. As these electrons move, they collide with the atoms of the materials through which they pass. With each such collision an electron causes an atom to vibrate

Hmmm. I need to re-study conduction bands in metals. But at first blush this seems to me to violate the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. How many electrons are we talking about?

[seowulf]

As these electrons move, they collide with the atoms of the materials through which they pass.

This must be the new science they're teaching to go along with the new math.

[seowulf]

That ten atom thick layer is EM shielding, not “sound” dampening.

[AndyJackson]

The Born-Oppenheimer approximation merely assumes that because ion motion due to vibrations is slow compared to electron orbit frequencies that the electron orbits in a molecule can be computed assuming the ion positions are static. That approximation is independent of this model, that conducting electrons collide with and scatter off of ions setting the lattice vibrating (which are called acoustic waves). In the solid state at ordinary temperatures acoustic vibrations are the dominant carrier of thermal energy (compared to electron thermal conduction)

[Openurmind]

You can hear it on all high tension supply lines. And the Native Americans called the telegraph lines the “singing wires”. These are those vibrations.