Let's start with a familiar example. The speed of sound is basically fixed, and signals caused by perturbing air molecules will propagate with this speed. This is true regardless of the gross wind conditions at play -- the speed of sound is much greater than the propagation speed of any single air molecule.
Similarly the speed of light is fixed, and is really the speed of propagation of electomagnetic waves. When you perturb electrons, other electrons will react to that change in the fields as it arrives at them with the speed of light. So even though the flow of electrons down the wire is very slow, the flow of energy or information may be very fast. In fact, you don't need electrons in between to move at all -- you can simply have empty space in between your antenna and the electrons you are moving around ;).
As it happens, these electromagnetic waves have components that stand orthogonal to eachother. If you take relativity into account, you can find a frame of reference where the magnetic field disappears -- really the magnetic field is just a relativistic correction of the electric field and explains why charged particles attract eachother differently when moving versus at rest. In any case, it is really just one field that is called electromagnetic because we used to think it was two completely separate fields!
Similarly the speed of light is fixed, and is really the speed of propagation of electomagnetic waves. When you perturb electrons, other electrons will react to that change in the fields as it arrives at them with the speed of light. So even though the flow of electrons down the wire is very slow, the flow of energy or information may be very fast. In fact, you don't need electrons in between to move at all -- you can simply have empty space in between your antenna and the electrons you are moving around ;).
As it happens, these electromagnetic waves have components that stand orthogonal to eachother. If you take relativity into account, you can find a frame of reference where the magnetic field disappears -- really the magnetic field is just a relativistic correction of the electric field and explains why charged particles attract eachother differently when moving versus at rest. In any case, it is really just one field that is called electromagnetic because we used to think it was two completely separate fields!