hannah jones asks:


CATAGORY: Electricity & Magnetism QUESTION: Explain how an alternating emf is generated in a conducting loop that is rotated in a magnetic field. Use a diagram in your explanation.

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Faraday's Law produces the EMF.  The law states that the induced EMF
is caused by the rate of change of the magnetic flux through the loop.

              d PHI
(1) EMF = - N -----
               dt
               
               
Where PHI is the magnetic flux through one loop an N is the number of
loops.  In this case we have only one loop so N = 1 .  The flux
through the loop is changing because the orientation of the loop with
respect to the magnetic field is changing.  In the figure below the loop
(depicted as a rectangle) intercepts magnetic field lines at some time t1.

                ->
                B     
                    
               ^   ^ 
           ____|_^_|_^__
           \   | | | |  \          time = t1
            \  | | | |   \
             \   |   |    \  loop       
              \____________\
                 |   \
                      \
                     Axis of rotation
                     
At some later time t2 the loop rotates to a new position relative to
the magnetic field so that it intercepts fewer (in this example no)
field lines.

                    ->
                    B     
                 |\   
               ^ | \  ^ 
               | |^ \ |  ^
               | ||  \   |        time = t2
               | ||   |  |
               | ||   |  |       
               | ||   |  |
                  |\  |\ |
                    \ | \
                     \|   axis of rotation  


So in a time t2 - t1 the magnetic flux changes.  By Faraday's law this
means a EMF is induced in the wire loop.  If the loop rotates with
angular velocity w about the indicated axis of rotation then the
magnetic flux at any instant in time will be

(2) PHI = BAcos(wt)

Where B is the magnitude of the magnetic field, A is the cross
sectional area of the loop and t is time.  Inserting this into (1),
with N = 1 gives


             d BAcos(wt) 
(3) EMF = -  -----------  =  BAwsin(wt)
               dt
               
              ********************
              *                  * 
              * EMF = BAwsin(wt) *
              *                  *
              ********************

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