The property of a circuit in virtue of which it exercises induction and develops lines of force. It is defined variously. As clear and satisfactory a definition as any is the following, due to Sumpner and Fleming: Inductance is the ratio between the total induction through a circuit to the current producing it. "Thus taking a simple helix of five turns carrying a current of two units, and assuming that 1,000 lines of force passed through the central turn, of which owing to leakage only 900 thread the next adjacent on each side, and again only 800 through the end turns, there would be 800 + 900 + 1000 + 900 + 800, or 4,400 linkages of lines with the wire, and this being with 2 units of current, there would be 2,200 linkages with unit current, and consequently the self-inductance of the helix would be 2,200 centimetres." (Kennelly.) Inductance, as regards its dimensions is usually reduced to a length, hence the last word of the preceding quotation. The practical unit of inductance is termed the henry, from Prof. Joseph Henry; the secohm, or the quad or quadrant. The latter alludes to the quadrant of the earth, the value in length of the unit in question. [Transcriber's note: (L (di/dt) = V). A current changing at the rate of one ampere per second through a one henry inductance produces one volt. A sinusoidal current produces a voltage 90 degrees ahead of the current, a cosine (the derivative of sine is cosine). One volt across one henry causes the current to increase at one ampere per second.]

The cause of a magnet weakening is on account of this quality, which is due to the direction of the lines of force within a magnet from the positive towards the negative pole. "A magnet thus tends to repel its own magnetism and to weaken itself by self-induction." (Daniell.)