# Would a strong diamagnetic material exhibit inductance?

Erm. This question got shot-down in electronics.stackexchange.com and somebody recommended I raise it on here, so ...

Do metals with the property of strong diamagnetism also exhibit inductance? Would a fluctuating magnetic field induce a weaker current in a strongly diamagnetic metal as compared against a ferromagnetic/paramagnetic metal?

I remember reading metal-detectors are based upon the property of inductance. So if a metal detector were to hover over a silver ingot/plate, would it succeed or fail?

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From what kind of metals are transformer windings made? Are that metals ferro/diamagnetic? Is there any metal which is not basically diamagnetic? –  Georg Oct 17 '11 at 8:56
Georg, Good call - as far as i know transformer windings are usually copper/silver i.e. strongly diamagnetic. Thanks. –  Everyone Oct 17 '11 at 9:16
Most diamagnets have a very small magnetic susceptibility, of the order of $-10^{-5}$. Thus I would not expect any significant effect of their susceptibility on the induced eddy currents.
One exception are the superconductors. In some sense they can be considered like perfect diamagnets ($\chi = -1$). If you apply a field on a superconductor you will induce a significant current on its surface, enough to screen the field inside the superconductor (this is the Meissner effect).