Lenz's law

Lenz's law states that an induced electromotive force drives current whose magnetic effect opposes the change in magnetic flux that produced it.

Faraday's law of induction: An induced electromotive force equals the negative rate of change of magnetic flux through a circuit. Its negative sign encodes the opposition specified by Lenz's law.
Eddy-current brake: A brake that slows a conductor through magnetic forces generated by induced eddy currents. The currents oppose the motion that changes magnetic flux, converting kinetic energy into heat.
Magnetic field: A vector field that describes magnetic forces on moving charges, currents, and magnetic materials. Magnetic flux measures this field across a surface.
Coulomb's law: A law giving the electrostatic force between stationary point charges as proportional to charge product and inverse squared distance. Unlike electrostatic attraction or repulsion, Lenz's law concerns induced responses to changing magnetic flux.
Magnetic flux: A measure of the magnetic field passing through a chosen surface. The change in this quantity sets the direction of the induced response.
Magnetic damping: Reduction of motion through magnetic forces that dissipate mechanical energy, often as heat. Lenz's law makes induced currents resist the motion that creates them.
Electric current: The rate at which electric charge passes through a surface or circuit. Induced current is the moving charge whose magnetic field opposes the flux change.
Biot–Savart law: A law calculating the magnetic field produced by steady electric currents. It predicts a current's field, while Lenz's law determines the direction of an induced current.
Electromagnetic induction: The production of electromotive force by changing magnetic fields or motion through magnetic fields. Lenz's law determines the direction of induced effects within this broader phenomenon.
Induction heating: Heating a conductive material with currents induced by a changing magnetic field. The induced currents oppose changing flux while dissipating electrical energy as heat.

Linked from 9 pages