I need a simple, yet comprehensive explanation of how basic inductance works.
I'm familiar with the concepts, and I've read a number of explanations, and I sort of understand how it all works. But I still can't comfortably wrap my head around the entire thing, including counter-EMF, expanding and collapsing fields and all that.
So I'm soliciting explanations from y'all, either your own finely-crafted short essays, or pointers to existing pages out there in Web-land.
I'd like to be able to understand the very basics of how coils work, starting with the right-hand rule and all that. Good illustrations would help, so I can finally grasp the relationships between the direction of current and the direction of the magnetic fields generated (and vice versa).
I have one request: Please do not try to explain it in terms like "the inductor tries to keep its current constant ..." I hate that! Not only does it not help to understand the concept, but it tries to anthropomorphize (big fancy word for "make it seem like it's human") a physical process, which has nothing to do with anything "wanting" to do anything. Please just explain it in terms of fields, forces, etc. See how good a teacher you can be!
I know it's basically a simple concept, but sometimes it's the simplest things that make our heads hurt the most ...
I'm familiar with the concepts, and I've read a number of explanations, and I sort of understand how it all works. But I still can't comfortably wrap my head around the entire thing, including counter-EMF, expanding and collapsing fields and all that.
So I'm soliciting explanations from y'all, either your own finely-crafted short essays, or pointers to existing pages out there in Web-land.
I'd like to be able to understand the very basics of how coils work, starting with the right-hand rule and all that. Good illustrations would help, so I can finally grasp the relationships between the direction of current and the direction of the magnetic fields generated (and vice versa).
I have one request: Please do not try to explain it in terms like "the inductor tries to keep its current constant ..." I hate that! Not only does it not help to understand the concept, but it tries to anthropomorphize (big fancy word for "make it seem like it's human") a physical process, which has nothing to do with anything "wanting" to do anything. Please just explain it in terms of fields, forces, etc. See how good a teacher you can be!
I know it's basically a simple concept, but sometimes it's the simplest things that make our heads hurt the most ...
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