Cómo Funciona un Inductor ⚡ Qué es un Inductor

the inductor or coil is a electronic component capable of storing energy So far we have seen how a battery can store energy through chemical reactions and also as a capacitor can store energy by generating an electric field but the inductor does not use any of these options it stores energy in the form of a magnetic field so in this chapter we will see how an inductor works inductors work thanks to their spiral shape which takes advantage of a mixture of three rules or laws that relate electric currents with the magnetic fields so let's analyze each

of them separately and then we'll see how they work together the first one was discovered by Hanz Christian Oersted and is that an electric current that is, the movement of electrons through a conductor is able to generate a magnetic field and due to this dependent relationship between both characteristics is that it is also commonly used the term electromagnetic field a way to remember the direction of this electromagnetic field is using the right hand rule in which, if we point our thumb in the direction of the current then the direction in which the rest of our

fingers point iwill be the same as the generated magnetic field although be careful with this part because although in most of my videos I represent the electric current with electrons that have a negative charge and move from the negative pole of a voltage source to the positive pole since we could say that is technically the most correct way in this video we will use the conventional direction of the current that is to say representing positive charges moving in the opposite direction It is not a big difference but it affects the result when applying the right

hand rule the second law is the law of electromagnetic induction by Michael Faraday which tells us in simple terms that the variation of a magnetic field can induce a voltage as we saw in the chapter on Electric generators where when moving a magnet cyclically near a cable an alternating current was generated but it should be noted that when Faraday's law speaks of a variation of the magnetic field it does not specifically refer to a variation in its position as in the example of the generator but it can also be a variation in the strength of

this magnetic field later we will see why this is important and finally in third place we have the law of Heinrich Lenz which tells us that when we generate an electric current through a magnetic field as in the case of generators the direction of this induced current is such which generates a magnetic field that opposes the magnetic field that generated it first now that we understand this we are ready to see what it is that actually occurs in an inductor when we make an electric current pass by a spiral-shaped conductor this current is going to

generate a magnetic field which at first when it goes in the straight part of the conductor is not so strong however as it turns around the spiral the magnetic field generated at each turn gets added since they all go in the same direction that is, we can represent the sum of the magnetic field of all turns as a single stronger magnetic field and this is where Faraday's Law and Lenz's Law come in and things get interesting since this magnetic field does not appear instantly but it grows gradually we will have a variation of a magnetic

field in time which according to the Faraday Law will induce a voltage but not any voltage according to Lenz's Law it will be a voltage that is going to oppose the electric current that generated it first in other words, when the magnetic field is growing there will be resistance to change but once it arrives at its maximum size or strength that resistance to change will disappear completely because Faraday's Law only applies when there is a variation of the magnetic field at this point when the magnetic field is constant we could say that the coil is

going to act as if it were a simple cable but when we cut the power the magnetic field will start to lose his strength that is, again we will have a variation in the magnetic field which according to the Faraday Law will induce a voltage but this time, since it is decreasing the direction of the induced current will go in the other direction the result of all this is that despite having turned off the initial current which was powered by a battery or something like that for a few brief moments we will have a current

induced by the magnetic field that we had generated in the coil and it is precisely because of this why is said that an inductor is capable of store energy in the form of a magnetic field now that we understand how a coil works let's see what effect it generates in a simple circuit pay special attention to behavior of the lamp in each of the stages when we close the circuit, the current has two possible paths however, due to initial resistance of the inductor most of this current will go to the easiest path that is to

say by the lamp but once the magnetic field of the inductor stabilizes and it starts to behave like a simple cable with virtually no resistance the easiest path will become that of the driver and the lamp will turn off later when we open the circuit and the current is cut off the magnetic field will lose its strength and will induce a current whose only path is to the lamp so it will turn on again of course this will not last forever because the lamp will act as a resistor that difficult the passage of the current

and also because when the electrons go back through the inductor will have to fight again with the resistance of creating a magnetic field and the cycle will continue until there are no more electrons moving and the magnetic field in the inductor have lost all their strength if we perform both voltage measurements as of the current passing through the inductor throughout this cycle we will find a behavior like this up to this point we have talked about how inductors work but we have not talked about how to control the effect of the inductor in the circuit

where it will be located or in other words, how strongly each inductor opposes changes in state this property is known as inductance and is usually represented with an L in honor of Heinrich Lenz and its unit of measure is the Henry in honor of Joseph Henry, who was another scientist from about the same time (1800s) and that was dedicated to the study of electromagnetic phenomena This unit can be described in many ways depending on what we want to do with it. but in general terms it is a value that relates the effect of the applied

current with the induced voltage and the magnetic field generated the inductance of a coil depends on several parameters so let's analyze some of them the first and perhaps the easiest to understand is the number of turns in the cable since at each turn the current passes generating a small magnetic field and the more turns we have more of these magnetic fields we will be adding to our total magnetic field with which we will obtain a greater inductance it should be noted that obviously this cable must be coated in such a way that the only possible

way for the current is in spiral if the cable was not covered the current would look for the shortest possible path and the magnetic field would never be generated the second parameter is the length of the inductor so that the magnetic fields of each spiral can be added effectively these should be as close as possible in fact to remember this relationship try to think in reverse if the length were extremely large we would practically end up with a cable which we know does not act as an inductor therefore, the shorter length or the more compact

the inductor the greater the inductance the third and fourth parameter are directly related and are the area and perimeter of each turn of the cable one way to understand its effect is to think in the distance that the current must travel to finish each lap although a constant current in a cable segment will always generate a magnetic field of the same intensity if we lengthen this segment so will the magnetic field In other words, the bigger the turn, the greater the inductance. and finally the last parameter that I want to talk about is the magnetic

permeability of core So far I have represented the center of all the coils as if they were empty however, we can add different materials in the center to enhance the creation of the magnetic field in simple terms magnetic permeability it is an intrinsic value of the materials and indicates its capacity of being affected by magnetic fields and therefore the greater the magnetic permeability of the core, the greater the inductance. you can use a formula like this to calculate exactly the inductance of a coil according to these parameters but I think it is much more valuable

that you understand the reasoning behind the effect of each of them due to all these characteristics inductors or coils are an extremely versatile element if we focus on their ability to generate resistance to current changes these can be used in signal filters in a similar way to capacitors or also to stabilize the delivered current by a power supply on the other hand, if we focus on your ability to generate a magnetic field Inductors can be used to move other elements by acting as an electromagnet which is exactly what happens in a relay in addition to

this, the electromagnetic field generated can also be used to induce currents in other inductors as is the case with transformers or devices with wireless charging and as if this wasn't enough inductors can also be used to heat some metals as in induction cookers or in more extreme cases even to melt metals I don't promise to talk about all these options but I will surely make a video with more details about some of them in the future I remind you that you can follow me in my different social networks and that you can help me in

Patreon if you think the work you do is worth it That is all for now and see you in the next chapter