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(December 2008)| A selection of low-value inductors |Working
principle||Electromagnetic induction| |First production||Michael
Faraday (1831)| An inductor, also called a coil or reactor, is a
passive two-terminal electrical component which resists changes
in electric current passing through it. It consists of a
conductor such as a wire, usually wound into a coil. When a
current flows through it, energy is stored in a magnetic field
in the coil. When the current flowing through an inductor
changes, the time-varying magnetic field induces a voltage in
the conductor, according to Faraday’s law of electromagnetic
induction, which by Lenz's law opposes the change in current
that created it. An inductor is characterized by its inductance,
the ratio of the voltage to the rate of change of current, which
has units of henries (H). Many inductors have a magnetic core
made of iron or ferrite inside the coil, which serves to
increase the magnetic field and thus t