Uploaded July 2023 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Everyone knows transformers don’t work with DC current, but anyone playing with batteries and coils probably know it’s a good way of receiving a shock. Connecting and disconnecting a DC supply to an inductor means there is a period of change and therefore not DC. This induces back EMF in the coil and is how ignition coils and fly-back transformers are driven.
It is well known that capacitors can store dangerous levels of charge that can be life threating and often have warning labels for this. The question, for thought, is could a transformer core similarly store this amount of energy? Fortunately, unlike a capacitor, the danger would only be for the time the magnetic field collapses in the core.
Everyone knows transformers don’t work with DC current, but anyone playing with batteries and coils probably know it’s a good way of receiving a shock. Connecting and disconnecting a DC supply to an inductor means there is a period of change and therefore not DC. This induces back EMF in the coil and is how ignition coils and fly-back transformers are driven.
It is well known that capacitors can store dangerous levels of charge that can be life threating and often have warning labels for this. The question, for thought, is could a transformer core similarly store this amount of energy? Fortunately, unlike a capacitor, the danger would only be for the time the magnetic field collapses in the core.
