Answer to Question #299745 in Electricity and Magnetism for Xela

Question

The free electrons in a metal are gravitationally attracted toward the earth. Why, then, don’t they all settle to the bottom of the conductor, like sediment settling to the bottom of a river?

Answer 1

Gravity is much, much, much…. weaker than electrostatic forces.

How much weaker? Electromagnetic forces are $10^{36}$ times stronger than gravitational forces - that’s 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times stronger.

So, electrons inside a conductor are only influenced by local electrostatic and magnetic forces inside the conductor, since gravitational forces are negligible.