the.com/coil
a humble loop of wire that quietly conjures fields, sparks, and most of modern civilization
means A length of something flexible — wire, rope, hose — wound into a series of rings or spirals, or any such loop-shaped thing.
from From Old French 'coillir,' to collect or gather up, which traces back to Latin 'colligere' — 'com-' (together) plus 'legere' (to gather), the same root that gives us 'collect.' So a coil is, at heart, something gathered into itself. The 'wound rope' sense surfaced in English around the 17th century, and the electrical meaning came much later as we found new things worth winding up.
- electromagnet
- Coiled wire turns electricity into magnetism on demand
- ignition
- Your car's spark plug fires thanks to a coil
- energy storage
- Inductors hoard energy in their magnetic field
- tesla's toy
- Tesla coils throw lightning across a room
- snake mode
- Coiling lets springs and serpents store sudden force
tesla coil — nikola tesla's 1891 invention that wirelessly transmits electricity and creates electrical arcs
roadway coil spring — suspension component in cars since early 1900s, wraps around shock absorber
ignition coil — transforms 12v battery voltage to 25,000v in gasoline engines to fire spark plugs