I'm not sure whether this has already been asked, but I post here as I couldn't find a satisfactory answer anywhere.
This classic example was used by my teacher to illustrate the effect of an inductor in a circuit.
Consider the circuit given above.
What happens to the bulbs when you turn the switch off?
Here's my teacher's argument.
Here, when you switch the circuit off, inductor opposes a change in current and hence, bulb A is supposed to glow for a longer time.
But, I had a different answer.
The inductor resists the current decay and makes it still flow through the circuit. Since the external circuit is open, the circuit containing both the bulbs would act as a separate unit, with flowing current. Hence, both the bulbs would glow for a while.
When my teacher insisted on his answer, I had to convince myself that the current due to the inductor is just enough to feed bulb A.
I am very sure that that this is not the case, then what is?
Am I wrong in considering the inductor as a emf source?
By the way, please explain, from where the inductor pulls charges to maintain the current in the circuit?
Is it from the conducting wire ? Or from the battery ?!