inductance, property of a conductor (often in the shape of a coil) that is measured by the size of the electromotive force, or voltage, induced in it, compared with the rate of change of the electric current that produces the voltage. A steady current produces a stationary magnetic field; a steadily changing current, alternating current, or fluctuating direct current produces a varying magnetic field, which, in turn, induces an electromotive force in a conductor that is present in the field. The size of the induced electromotive force is proportional to the rate of change of the electric current. The proportionality factor is called the inductance and is defined as the value of the electromotive force induced in a conductor divided by the magnitude of the rate of change of the current causing the induction.
If the electromotive force is induced in a conductor that is different from the one in which the current is changing, the phenomenon is called mutual induction, exemplified in a transformer. A changing magnetic field caused by a varying current in a conductor, however, also induces an electromotive force in the very conductor that carries the changing current. Such a phenomenon is called self-induction, and the quotient of the induced electromotive force and the rate of change of the current is specified as self-inductance.
A self-induced electromotive force opposes the change that brings it about. Consequently, when a current begins to flow through a coil of wire, it undergoes an opposition to its flow in addition to the resistance of the metal wire. On the other hand, when an electric circuit carrying a steady current and containing a coil is suddenly opened, the collapsing, and hence diminishing, magnetic field causes an induced electromotive force that tends to maintain the current and the magnetic field and may cause a spark between the contacts of the switch. The self-inductance of a coil, or simply its inductance, may thus be thought of as electromagnetic inertia, a property that opposes changes both in currents and in magnetic fields.
Inductance depends on the size and shape of a given conductor, the number of turns if it is a coil, and the kind of material near the conductor. A coil wound on a soft iron core far more effectively chokes the increase of a current than the same coil with an air core. The iron core increases the inductance; for the same rate of change of the current in the coil, a greater opposing electromotive force (back emf) is present to choke the current.
The unit of magnetic inductance is the henry, named in honour of the 19th-century American physicist Joseph Henry, who first recognized the phenomenon of self-induction. One henry is equivalent to one volt divided by one ampere per second. If a current changing at the rate of one ampere per second induces an electromotive force of one volt, the circuit has an inductance of one henry, a relatively large inductance.