eddy current

American  

noun

1. an electric current in a conducting material that results from induction by a moving or varying magnetic field.

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eddy current British  

noun

1. Also called: Foucault current.  an electric current induced in a massive conductor, such as the core of an electromagnet, transformer, etc, by an alternating magnetic field

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Etymology

Origin of eddy current

1590–1600, for an earlier sense

Example Sentences

Large magnets pull out metals; aluminum is itself magnetized using what’s known as an eddy current to draw it out.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 5, 2024

If motional emf can cause a current loop in the conductor, we refer to that current as an eddy current.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

But when the plate leaves the field on the right, flux decreases, causing an eddy current in the clockwise direction that, again, experiences a force to the left, further slowing the motion.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

When an insulating material is used, the eddy current is extremely small, and so magnetic damping on insulators is negligible.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

The short deep ones they set in the eddy current of rivers, and the long ones in the lakes.

From Voyages from Montreal Through the Continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in 1789 and 1793 Vol. I by Mackenzie, Alexander