You're right, I was mixing two different cases (open vs. closed circuit). Regarding the effect on resistance, this was an editing error, caused by rewriting the question.
Thanks!
Thanks for the reply. In the Drude model the electric field is assumed to be constant and uniform. My question is why is this a good assumption, given the screening by the electrons in the contact region? Is this because the circuit is closed, and so there is no accumulation of the electrons at...
Metals are highly effective at screening electric fields. If we place two contacts reasonably far away from each other on a piece of metal and apply a voltage bias, the charge carriers in the section that is far enough from both the contacts should be unaffected by the electric field. Why then...