I know the flowing electrons create a magnetic field in the coil to oppose the flow BUT does this mean the current is limited because the speed of the traveling electrons slow down??? OR is it something else. Please give an answer that explains what the electrons are doing exactly, no textbook crap cuz they never explain in depth about this stuff. Thanks
An inductor will resist any *change* in current through it. Increasing the current builds up the magnetic field in/around the inductor. The expanding field cuts across the turns of the inductor and generates an opposing voltage, thus resisting the increase. Decreasing current allows the field to collapse, and as it collapses through the turns it generates a voltage a supporting voltage, thus resisting the decrease. The faster the change is, the more the inductor resists it. The speed of the electrons doesn't change (current flows in copper at something like 95% of the speed of light in vacuum, and individual electrons move at something like ?300 m/s?). But the boost or buck voltage generated in the inductor causes the *amount* of current to change.
Think of inductors as providing an inertia to the circuit. What they do is make it so the current wants to keep flowing at the same rate through them. If other components of the circuit might cause the current to speed up or slow down, the inductor's back-emf will oppose this to try to keep the current flowing. Inductors do not like changing currents. So the current isn't creating a magnetic field to oppose the current flow, it is creating the magnetic field to oppose CHANGE in the current flow. The water-analogy of an inductor is a heavy paddle-wheel, mounted free-spinning on bearings, that the water passes through. If the water current speeds up, the heavy paddle-wheel will push back on the water to try to slow it down as the water tries to speed up the paddle-wheel. If the water current slows down, the heavy paddle-wheel will push it forward, trying to preserve its speed it once had.
See my answer to your question about capacitors. Also:
