Dear friends, I'd like to get a better insight into inductors by asking two questions, hoping it may be of general interest: 1) As we know very well, once we apply power to an inductor the current will build up till it saturates. At that point, the current we make flow into the inductor dissipates as heat by the well known joule-effect formula Q=I^2*R*T Now my first question is: BEFORE we reach coil saturation, does the above formula still apply, maybe substiting R with the instantaneous impedance, or part of the energy won't become heat but instead will be stored into magnetic energy? Apologies if I don't express myself like an engineer: I am not of course, but I am very passionated about the matter. 2) If part of the energy is temporarily "lost" (stored!) into a magnetic field, imagine if we disconnect completely the inductor in 0 time.. how long will the energy be retained, and what will estiguish it? An analogy with a capacitor is almost impossible, as (internal losses set aside) it will retain the stored energy indefinitely. However an inductor will lose it pretty quickly, that's my experience at least. Thank You, Mario -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist