Wiktionary
n. (context physics English) Potential energy (NOT force) divided by electric charge; measured in volts
WordNet
Wikipedia
Electromotive force, also called emf (denoted E and measured in volt), is the voltage developed by any source of electrical energy such as a battery or dynamo. It is generally defined as the electrical potential for a source in a circuit. A device that supplies electrical energy is called a seat of electromotive force or emf. Emfs convert chemical, mechanical, and other forms of energy into electrical energy. The product of such a device is also known as emf.
The word "force" in this case is not used to mean mechanical force, measured in newtons, but a potential, or energy per unit of charge, measured in volts.
In electromagnetic induction, emf can be defined around a closed loop as the electromagnetic work that would be done on a charge if it travels once around that loop. (While the charge travels around the loop, it can simultaneously lose the energy gained via resistance into thermal energy.) For a time-varying magnetic flux linking a loop, the electric potential scalar field is not defined due to circulating electric vector field, but nevertheless an emf does work that can be measured as a virtual electric potential around that loop.
In the case of a two-terminal device (such as an electrochemical cell or electromagnetic generator) which is modeled as a Thévenin's equivalent circuit, the equivalent emf can be measured as the open-circuit potential difference or voltage between the two terminals. This potential difference can drive a current if an external circuit is attached to the terminals.
Devices that can provide emf include electrochemical cells, thermoelectric devices, solar cells, photodiodes, electrical generators, transformer and even Van de Graaff generators. In nature, emf is generated whenever magnetic field fluctuations occur through a surface. The shifting of the Earth's magnetic field during a geomagnetic storm, induces currents in the electrical grid as the lines of the magnetic field are shifted about and cut across the conductors.
In the case of a battery, the charge separation that gives rise to a voltage difference between the terminals is accomplished by chemical reactions at the electrodes that convert chemical potential energy into electromagnetic potential energy. A voltaic cell can be thought of as having a "charge pump" of atomic dimensions at each electrode, that is:
A source of emf can be thought of as a kind of charge pump that acts to move positive charge from a point of low potential through its interior to a point of high potential. … By chemical, mechanical or other means, the source of emf performs work dW on that charge to move it to the high potential terminal. The emf ℰ of the source is defined as the work dW done per charge dq: ℰ = dW/dq.
Around 1830, Michael Faraday established that the reactions at each of the two electrode–electrolyte interfaces provide the "seat of emf" for the voltaic cell, that is, these reactions drive the current and are not an endless source of energy as was initially thought. In the open-circuit case, charge separation continues until the electrical field from the separated charges is sufficient to arrest the reactions. Years earlier, Alessandro Volta, who had measured a contact potential difference at the metal–metal (electrode–electrode) interface of his cells, had held the incorrect opinion that contact alone (without taking into account a chemical reaction) was the origin of the emf.
In the case of an electrical generator, a time-varying magnetic field inside the generator creates an electric field via electromagnetic induction, which in turn creates a voltage difference between the generator terminals. Charge separation takes place within the generator, with electrons flowing away from one terminal and toward the other, until, in the open-circuit case, sufficient electric field builds up to make further charge separation impossible. Again the emf is countered by the electrical voltage due to charge separation. If a load is attached, this voltage can drive a current. The general principle governing the emf in such electrical machines is Faraday's law of induction.
Usage examples of "electromotive force".
I think their psychic control was strong enough to reverse a weak current flow caused by a weak electromotive force.
In the conductor, however, we find an electromotive force, to which in itself there is no corresponding energy, but which gives rise - assuming equality of relative motion in the two cases discussed - to electric currents of the same path and intensity as those produced by the electric forces in the former case.
Its electromotive force is determined by the distance in the series between the metals used.
Theoretically, a terminal of less than 90 feet in diameter is sufficient to develop an electromotive force of that magnitude, while for antenna currents of from 2,000-4,000 amperes at the usual frequencies, it need not be larger than 30 feet in diameter.
At this end of the line I merely measure the electromotive force developed by the difference in temperature of two similar thermo- electric junctions, opposed.
When a magnetic field collapses rapidly, it induces an electromotive force, or voltage, in the circuit carrying the current responsible for the field.
Baker, stands for magnetohydrodynamics-a way of producing massive amounts of electromotive force in a very compact unit.
There were wires and connections which suggested an electromotive force, but that was all.
Not powered by the clean transformations of electromotive force, but by the clumsy building up and tearing down of molecules.