  In this article, the self-inductance of a circular circuit is treated from an
untraditional, particle-based point of view. The electromagnetic fields of
Faraday induction are calculated explicitly from the point-charge fields
derived from the Darwin Lagrangian for particles confined to move in a circular
orbit. For a one-particle circuit (or for N non-interacting particles), the
induced electromagnetic fields depend upon the mass and charge of the current
carriers while energy is transferred to the kinetic energy of the particle (or
particles). However, for an interacting multiparticle circuit, the mutual
electromagnetic interactions between particles can dominate the behavior so
that the mass and charge of the individual particles becomes irrelevant; the
induced fields are then comparable to the inducing fields and energy goes into
magnetic energy. In addition to providing a deeper understanding of
self-inductance, the example suggests that the claims involving hidden
mechanical momentum in connection with momentum balance for interacting
multiparticle systems are unlikely to be accurate.
