Thanks very much for all the interesting comments on my fluid
analogies.
Another thing one might mention is that with the huge fluid wheel
running, if one were to shut off the exit flow with a valve, a pipe
or the housing would burst and fluid would pour out. Attempts to
shut off currents in large inductors are met with a large spark!
I've even seen this on a small scale in a household light switch
through the opaque cover when turning off a light (the effect is
bigger in fluorescents I think).
I'll change the diagrams to say that charge flows in and charge flows
out, and someplace else (probably in a lighter arrow) indicate
direction of the current (I find myself still wanting to say 'current
flow').
I apologize for the glitchy original message -- my Next did something
funny which it does not normally do. (Thanks again to Steve for
un-hashing it).
Mike
===============================================================
Mike Moloney http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~moloney
moloney@nextwork.rose-hulman.edu
Dept of Physics & Applied Optics (812) 877 8302
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Terre Haute, IN 47803