Translations:Introduction to Dielectricity & Capacitance (Eric P. Dollard)/33/en

Free Space Inductance is Infinite

Steinmetz in his book on the general or unified behavior of electricity The Theory and Calculation of Transient Electric Phenomena and Oscillation, points out that the inductance of any unit length of an isolated filamentary conductor must be infinite. Because no image currents exist to contain the magnetic field it can grow to infinite size. This large quantity of energy cannot be quickly retrieved due to the finite velocity of propagation of the magnetic field. This gives a non reactive or energy component to the inductance which is called electromagnetic radiation.