1. The act or process of inducting or bringing in; introduction;
entrance; beginning; commencement.
I know not you; nor am I well pleased to make this time, as the
affair now stands, the induction of your acquaintance.
Beau. & Fl.
These promises are fair, the parties sure, And our induction dull
of prosperous hope.
Shak.
2. An introduction or introductory scene, as to a play; a preface; a
prologue. [Obs.]
This is but an induction: I will draw The curtains of the tragedy
hereafter.
Massinger.
3. (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.
Induction is an inference drawn from all the particulars.
Sir W. Hamilton.
Induction is the process by which we conclude that what is true of
certain individuals of a class, is true of the whole class, or that
what is true at certain times will be true in similar circumstances
at all times.
J. S. Mill.
4. 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.
5. (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.
6. (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.
Electro-dynamic induction, the action by which a variable or
interrupted current of electricity excites another current in a
neighboring conductor forming a closed circuit. -- Electro-magnetic
induction, the influence by which an electric current produces magnetic
polarity in certain bodies near or around which it passes. --
Electro-static induction, 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. --
Induction coil, 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. -- Induction pipe, port, or valve, 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. -- Magnetic
induction, the action by which magnetic polarity is developed in a body
susceptible to magnetic effects when brought under the influence of a
magnet. -- Magneto-electric induction, the influence by which a magnet
excites electric currents in closed circuits.
Logical induction, (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. -- Philosophical
induction, 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.
Syn. -- Deduction. -- Induction, Deduction. In induction we observe a
sufficient number of individual facts, and, on the ground of analogy,
extend what is true of them to others of the same class, thus arriving
at general principles or laws. This is the kind of reasoning in
physical science. In deduction we begin with a general truth, which is
already proven or provisionally assumed, and seek to connect it with
some particular case by means of a middle term, or class of objects,
known to be equally connected with both. Thus, we bring down the
general into the particular, affirming of the latter the distinctive
qualities of the former. This is the syllogistic method. By induction
Franklin established the identity of lightning and electricity; by
deduction he inferred that dwellings might be protected by lightning
rods.
In*duc"tion*al (?), a. Pertaining to, or proceeding by, induction;
inductive.