induction

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The act or an instance of inducting.
• noun A ceremony or formal act by which a person is inducted, as into office or military service.
• noun The generation of electromotive force in a closed circuit by a varying magnetic flux through the circuit.
• noun The charging of an isolated conducting object by momentarily grounding it while a charged body is nearby.
• noun The process of deriving general principles from particular facts or instances.
• noun A conclusion reached by this process.
• noun Mathematics A two-part method of proving a theorem involving an integral parameter. First the theorem is verified for the smallest admissible value of the integer. Then it is proven that if the theorem is true for any value of the integer, it is true for the next greater value. The final proof contains the two parts.
• noun The act or process of inducing or bringing about, as.
• noun Medicine The inducing of labor, whereby labor is initiated artificially with drugs such as oxytocin.
• noun Medicine The administration of anesthetic agents and the establishment of a depth of anesthesia adequate for surgery.
• noun Biochemistry The process of initiating or increasing the production of an enzyme, as in genetic transcription.
• noun Embryology The process by which one part of an embryo causes adjacent tissues or parts to change form or shape, as by the diffusion of hormones or other chemicals.
• noun Presentation of material, such as facts or evidence, in support of an argument or proposition.
• noun A preface or prologue, especially to an early English play.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Magnetic induction is the flux density in a medium such as iron when subjected to a magnetizing force. It is expressed in terms of a unit called the gauss, namely, the number of lines of force per square centimeter of cross-section of the substance. Induction, thus numerically defined, is usually designated by the letter B; the magnetizing force to which it is due, by the letter H. Induction is frequently determined by winding a ring-shaped piece of the iron to be tested with two coils of wire, the primary and the secondary coil. The secondary coil is connected to a ballistic galvanometer and a known current is suddenly sent through the primary coil. The magnetic field thus established within the iron induces a flow of electricity through the secondary coil and through the galvanometer, which affords a measure of the induction. The relation is expressed by the equation where Q is the quantity of electricity as measured by the deflection of the galvanometer, R is the resistance of the secondary circuit, S is the cross-section of the iron, and n₂ is the number of turns of wire in the secondary coil. The relation between induction and the magnetizing force may be expressed graphically by means of a curve, called the curve of induction, in which ordinates represent the values of the induction B and abscissæ the corresponding values of the magnetizing force H. The curve rises slowly for small magnetizing forces and then sharply, for a time, until the iron approaches saturation, after which the slope of the curve diminishes. These changes in the direction of the curve are due to variations in the permeability of the iron, which increases with the magnetizing force, reaches a maximum, and then diminishes again indefinitely. The induction B is not identical with the magnetization I which is defined by the equation
• noun The leading or admission of steam into a cylinder.
• noun In general, the principle that, given any class of terms s, to which belongs the first term of any progression, and to which belongs the term of the progression next after any term of the progression belonging to s, then every term of the progression belongs to s.
• noun The act of inducting or bringing in.
• noun Specifically, the introduction of a person into an office with the customary forms and ceremonies; installation; especially, the introduction of a clergyman into a benefice, or the official act of putting a clergyman in actual possession of the church and its temporalities, to which he has been presented: usually performed by virtue of a mandate under the seal of the bishop.
• noun Beginning; commencement; introduction.
• noun In a literary work, an introduction or preface; a preamble; a prologue; a preliminary sketch or scene; a prelude, independent of the main performance, but exhibiting more or less directly its purpose or character: as, the induction to Shakspere's “Taming of the Shrew.”
• noun In logic, the process of drawing a general conclusion from particular cases; the inference from the character of a sample to that of the whole lot sampled.
• noun In physics, the process by which a body having electrical or magnetic properties calls forth similar properties in a neighboring body without direct contact; electrical influence.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The act or process of inducting or bringing in; introduction; entrance; beginning; commencement.
• noun obsolete An introduction or introductory scene, as to a play; a preface; a prologue.
• noun (Philos.) The act or process of reasoning from a part to a whole, from particulars to generals, or from the individual to the universal; also, the result or inference so reached.
• noun The introduction of a clergyman into a benefice, or of an official into a office, with appropriate acts or ceremonies; the giving actual possession of an ecclesiastical living or its temporalities.
• noun (Math.) A process of demonstration in which a general truth is gathered from an examination of particular cases, one of which is known to be true, the examination being so conducted that each case is made to depend on the preceding one; -- called also successive induction.
• noun (Physics) The property by which one body, having electrical or magnetic polarity, causes or induces it in another body without direct contact; an impress of electrical or magnetic force or condition from one body on another without actual contact.
• noun the action by which a variable or interrupted current of electricity excites another current in a neighboring conductor forming a closed circuit.
• noun the influence by which an electric current produces magnetic polarity in certain bodies near or around which it passes.
• noun the action by which a body possessing a charge of statical electricity develops a charge of statical electricity of the opposite character in a neighboring body.
• noun an apparatus producing induced currents of great intensity. It consists of a coil or helix of stout insulated copper wire, surrounded by another coil of very fine insulated wire, in which a momentary current is induced, when a current (as from a voltaic battery), passing through the inner coil, is made, broken, or varied. The inner coil has within it a core of soft iron, and is connected at its terminals with a condenser; -- called also inductorium, and Ruhmkorff's coil.
• noun a pipe, passageway, or valve, for leading or admitting a fluid to a receiver, as steam to an engine cylinder, or water to a pump.
• noun the action by which magnetic polarity is developed in a body susceptible to magnetic effects when brought under the influence of a magnet.
• noun the influence by which a magnet excites electric currents in closed circuits.
• noun (Philos.) an act or method of reasoning from all the parts separately to the whole which they constitute, or into which they may be united collectively; the operation of discovering and proving general propositions; the scientific method.
• noun the inference, or the act of inferring, that what has been observed or established in respect to a part, individual, or species, may, on the ground of analogy, be affirmed or received of the whole to which it belongs. This last is the inductive method of Bacon. It ascends from the parts to the whole, and forms, from the general analogy of nature, or special presumptions in the case, conclusions which have greater or less degrees of force, and which may be strengthened or weakened by subsequent experience and experiment. It relates to actual existences, as in physical science or the concerns of life. Logical induction is founded on the necessary laws of thought; philosophical induction, on the interpretation of the indications or analogy of nature.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun the act of inducing childbirth
• noun the act of inducting
• noun a formal ceremony in which a person is appointed to an office or into military service
• noun physics the generation of an electric current by a varying magnetic field
• noun logic the derivation of general principles from specific instances
• noun mathematics A general proof of a theorem by first proving it for a specific integer (for example) and showing that, if it is true for one integer then it must be true for the next.
• noun theater The use of rumors to twist and complicate the plot of a play or to narrate in a way that does not have to state truth nor fact within the play.