
Chapter 37
Inductance
Recall the familiar example of the simple battery–resistor–switch circuit. An electric current
flows once the switch is closed.
V R
FIGURE 37.1 The Minimal Resistor–Battery–Switch Circuit
Long ago we invoked Ohm’s Law to determine the steady state current: I = V /R. But this
current had to grow from zero, and while it grew it produced an increasingly strong magnetic
field,
→
B
c
, in the space near the wires, and thus a changing magnetic flux through [almost
1
]
any fixed area. The additional magnetic flux passing through any particular surface, S,
whose boundary is defined by the circuit,
Φ
m,S
=
Z
→
B
c
· d
→
A ,
was zero with the switch open, and