Red Seal Electrician Practice
AC theoryQuestion 1148 of 1506

An ideal inductor is connected to an AC source. What happens to the power it receives?

  1. It is all turned into heat in the coil wire.
  2. It is all turned into light.
  3. It is lost in the supply cables before the coil.
  4. It is stored and returned to the source, with no net power used.
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Correct answer: It is stored and returned to the source, with no net power used.

A purely reactive load absorbs and returns power equally, so the average power is zero.

Source: Lessons in Electric Circuits II: AC (Kuphaldt), 11.1: Power in Resistive and Reactive AC circuits

Practice ac theory

Questions last reviewed: 18 October 2026