Electro-motive Force

The cause which produces currents of electricity. In general it can be expressed in difference of potentials, although the term electro-motive force should be restricted to potential difference causing a current. It is often a sustained charging of the generator terminals whence the current is taken. Its dimensions are

(work done/the quantity of electricity involved),

or ( M * (L^2) /(T^2 ) ) / ((M^.5) * (L^.5)) = ( (M^.5) * (L^1.5) ) /(T^2)

The practical unit of electro-motive force is the volt, q. v. It is often expressed in abbreviated form, as E. M. D. P., or simply as D. P., i. e., potential difference.

Electro-motive force and potential difference are in many cases virtually identical, and distinctions drawn between them vary with different authors. If we consider a closed electric circuit carrying a current, a definite electro-motive force determined by Ohm's law from the resistance and current obtains in it. But if we attempt to define potential difference as proper to the circuit we may quite fail. Potential difference in a circuit is the difference in potential between defined points of such circuit. But no points in a closed circuit can be found which differ in potential by an amount equal to the entire electro-motive force of the circuit. Potential difference is properly the measure of electro-motive force expended on the portion of a circuit between any given points. Electro-motive force of an entire circuit, as it is measured, as it were, between two consecutive points but around the long portion of the circuit, is not conceivable as merely potential difference. Taking the circle divided in to degrees as an analogy, the electro-motive force of the entire circuit might be expressed as 360º, which are the degrees intervening between two consecutive points, measured the long way around the circle. But the potential difference between the same two points would be only 1º, for it would be measured by the nearest path.

[Transcriber's notes: If 360º is the "long" way, 0º is the "short". A formal restatement of the above definition of EMF: "If a charge Q passes through a device and gains energy U, the net EMF for that device is the energy gained per unit charge, or U/Q. The unit of EMF is a volt, or newton-meter per coulomb."]

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