Question

What is drift velocity?

Answer 1

If a particle moves in a random manner in a space. That means it continually changes its directions and velocities in a random manner. The resultant of these random motions as a whole called drift velocity.

The definition of drift velocity can be understood by imagining the random motion of free electrons in a conductor. The free electrons in a conductor moves with random velocities and in random directions. When an electric field is applied across the conductor the randomly moving electrons are subjected to electrical forces along the direction of the field. Due to this field, the electrons do not give up their randomness of motion, but they will be shifting towards higher potential. That means the electrons will drift towards higher potential along with their random motions. Thus, every electron will have a net velocity towards the higher potential end of the conductor and this net velocity is referred as the drift velocity of electrons. Hopping you understand the definition of drift velocity.