Have a look at
How Inductors Work.
How to calculate the capacity of an inductor?
The capacity of an inductor is controlled by four factors:
- The number of coils - More coils means more inductance.
- The material that the coils are wrapped around (the core)
- The cross-sectional area of the coil - More area means more inductance.
- The length of the coil - A short coil means narrower (or overlapping) coils, which means more inductance.
Putting iron in the core of an inductor gives it much more inductance than air or any non-magnetic core would.
The standard unit of inductance is the henry. The equation for calculating the number of Henri in an inductor is:
H = (4 x Pi x Number_of_turns2 x Coil_Area x mu) / (Coil_Length x 10,000,000)
The area and length of the coil are in meters. The term mu is the permeability of the core. Air has a permeability of 1, while steel might have a permeability of 2,000.