A basic concept in electrical engineering and electronics is that of inductance. It is defined by Examples.com as “a property of electrical circuits where a change in electric current generates an opposing electromotive force through a magnetic field.”
To reiterate, then, inductance occurs due to a changing current in a conductor (such as a coil or wire) inducing a magnetic field. This, in turn, induces a voltage opposing the current change, in accordance with Lenz’s Law. It is an effect that plays a critical role in such components as inductors, transformers, and motors.
What Are the Units for Measuring Inductance?
The base unit for inductance in the International System of Units (SI) – the modern form of the metric system – is the henry (H). It is named after the American physicist Joseph Henry (1797-1878), who discovered self-inductance in an electric circuit.
The henry represents the amount of inductance that will produce a voltage of one volt when the current is changing at a rate of one ampere per second. Or to put it a simpler way: it quantifies the effectiveness with which a coil opposes changes in electric current.
While the henry is the standard unit for measuring inductance, inductors in electronic circuits frequently have much smaller values. To measure these, the millihenry (mH) or microhenry (µH) is typically used.
How Are These Inductance Units Related To Each Other?
Making a note of or memorising these relationships between henries, millihenries, and microhenries will serve you well in situations when you need to carry out quick conversions but might not have a calculator or conversion tool to hand:
How To Convert Between the Units of Inductance
Here, then, is your “cut out and keep” rundown of what you need to do to convert from one unit of inductance to another, whatever the given practical application may be:
So, to give an example, if you needed to work out how much2 henries would be in millihenries, the relevant calculation would be 2 H x 1,000 = 2,000 mH.
Or if you were trying to determine what 500,000 microhenries would be when converted to henries, you would use the formula 500,000 µH / 1,000,000 = 0.5 H.
Couldn’t You Just Use a Calculator to Convert from One Inductance Unit to Another?
Such tools are certainly easy enough to find online. It is a straightforward process to convert between henry and millihenry with this calculator on the RS website; you simply need to enter the relevant input value, before clicking “Calculate”.
As we alluded to above, though, you might not always have access to a device or the Internet in order to use such online tools. In any case, getting to grips with the aforementioned manual calculations can help reinforce your awareness and understanding of how henries, millihenries, and microhenries relate to each other.
To summarise, then, both manual calculations and the use of online conversion tools can be useful and relevant, including for verifying the accuracy of results. Combining these approaches can therefore help optimise both the speed andprecision of your work whenever you find yourself needing to convert between these units of inductance.
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