Indeed, just what does move the electrons in the wire if the electric field in that wire is zero? Now, one end of the wire is connected to the + battery terminal and the other end to the - battery terminal. He clearly shows an electric field from those battery terminals that surrounds the battery so a free electron or other charged particle would travel in that field from one battery terminal to the other (assume a vacuum).
But somehow there is NO E field in that small path from one battery terminal to the other where the wire happens to be? How does that work? Oh, he says a super conductor so there is no resistance. But wouldn't a vacuum also have zero resistance? If he can assume a super conductor, then I can assume a perfect vacuum, can't I? And charged particles are KNOWN to travel astronomical distances in the vacuum of space, for the most part without slowing down. So that perfect vacuum, with no resistance has a field around the battery, but that single, narrow path where the superconducting wire happens to be does not. Really?
When an electron leaves the - battery terminal and enters the wire, that end of the wire has acquired an excess negative charge, super conductor or not. And since nothing can travel faster then c, then it will take at least the length of the conductor divided by c for the new distribution of the electrons in the wire to reach the other end. And by comparison to the end with the extra electron, that other end will have a + charge. For a short period of time we have a wire with one end more + and the other end more -. And there just MUST be an electrical field in that wire, super conductor or not.
A STATIC, EXTERNAL E field may not be able to penetrate that super conductor, but when the extra charge in inside the super conductor then a field MUST exist until the speed limit of the universe (c) allows that imbalance to work itself out. I am not an expert on super conductors, so I do not know it this takes place at c or at some other velocity, but it can mot be completely instantaneous.
He shows some nice graphics that he says represent these fields. He even shows one graphic that seems to show an electric field inside the wire but apologizes for the arrows being on the outside. WHAT THE HECK?
? Is he contradicting himself?
My next point is about when he shows the step nature of the current. He shows a small, but definite step in the Voltage or current when the switch is first closed and then the rise to the full values when the electrons have had time to travel around the wire path. He explains this by the capacitance between the wire close to the battery and the wire close to the light or resistor. He then explains how that capacitance charges as the current in the wire moves from the battery to the far ends of the wire where it has a U turn. This is probably correct. It looks a lot like the model of a transmission line (twin lead, coaxial cable, etc.). He says that this produces a lit lamp when the field has had time to propagate from the battery to the lamp at the speed of light. BUT, the distance involved, which is one meter or less, is far too short to allow that speed to be measured with any accuracy. Especially with the instruments he is using. So neither he nor we really know if this is at c or at some lower velocity. But forget that. There is another problem here and it is in exactly what he says to explain this action: the capacitance between the wires.
If I were to connect a couple of capacitors from the wires near the battery/switch and the same wires near the lamp, and made them large value capacitors, like 1F or bigger, not a single one of us would be at all surprised if that lamp lit up at full brilliance for a period of seconds after the switch was closed. As the capacitors charge to the battery Voltage we expect a momentary current to flow. It is flowing through the capacitors in the same manner that virtually every capacitor in every electric and electronic circuit in the world or universe conducts a changing Voltage or current. So YES, I must admit that there is an E field between the plates of the capacitors, but the current is also flowing IN THE WIRES that connect these capacitors to our circuit. And the electrical energy is flowing in those wires. Just try this experiment with even a microscopic opening in those wires. That current flow will be greatly reduced in proportion to the capacitance of that gap in the wires to the gap in the large value capacitors.
I say that there is no essential difference between the capacitance in my capacitors and the capacitance between the wires. The difference is in the amount of current that each size of capacitance allows to flow.
And if you replace the simple wire with shielded coaxial cable, then there is NO field outside of that shield. The conductors near the battery/switch will no longer be able to extend their field to the conductors near the lamp. The small step he sees on his scope will no longer be there and the speed of propagation IN the coaxial cable will be entirely what determines when the lamp will light. If the switch is a single pole one at only one of the battery terminals, then the entire loop of wire will begin at either + or - battery Voltage. And when the switch is closed, then the impulse from that battery terminal will travel down the coax at the speed of propagation in that particular type of coaxial cable (check out the cable manufacturer's specs. as they can and do differ) and the light will come on only when that time period has passed EVEN IF THE LAMP IS ONLY MILLIMETERS AWAY FROM THE BATTERY/SWITCH.
He will probably argue that this distorts the E field by confining it between the outer and inner conductors of the coax and makes it longer. I guess that is so. But his small step argues against the full current/power being transmitted by the E field. That E field does not suddenly get stronger when 1/c seconds have passed. In fact, it is exactly the same as it was JUST prior to that time period passing. The E field can only transmit a small fraction of the current/power. The small size of his initial step shows that. For the full power to be transmitted the current/power must travel THROUGH THE WIRE.
And this is EXACTLY what his experiment is actually showing.
A further experiment could be done with two types of wire: standard wire and coaxial cable. If you were to establish the initial lighting of the lamp with the standard wire and the lamp comes to full brightness after 1/c, then the E field would be completely established. Then if you simultaneously switch both ends of the wires to substitute the coaxial cable for the standard wire, although the E field is still collapsing, the lamp would immediately go out and not light up again until the current from the battery has had another 1/c time period to travel through the coaxial cable. If the initial E field was transmitting the current/power, then the bulb would fade out as the field collapses. But no, it immediately goes off because the wire and the current IN the wire has been disconnected. That collapsing E field will not, can not keep it on.
What pushes the charges inside the wire if there is no electric field inside the wire and the electrons don't push themselves.