What Is Electromagnetic Induction?

Electromagnetic induction is the process of

generating electric current with a magnetic field. It occurs whenever a
magnetic field and an electric conductor, such as a coil of wire, move
relative to one another. As long as the conductor is part of a
closed circuit, current will flow through it whenever it crosses lines of
force in the magnetic field. 

Electromagnetic or magnetic induction is the production of

an electromotive force across an electrical conductor in a
changing magnetic field.

Michael Faraday is generally credited with the discovery of induction in

1831, and James Clerk Maxwell mathematically described it
as Faraday's law of induction. Lenz's law describes the direction of the
induced field. Faraday's law was later generalized to become the
Maxwell–Faraday equation, one of the four Maxwell equations in his
theory of electromagnetism.

Faraday's law of induction and Lenz's law

Main article: Faraday's law of induction

A solenoid
The longitudinal cross section of a solenoid with a constant electrical
current running through it. The magnetic field lines are indicated, with
their direction shown by arrows. The magnetic flux corresponds to the
'density of field lines'. The magnetic flux is thus densest in the middle of
the solenoid, and weakest outside of it.

Faraday's law of induction makes use of the magnetic flux ΦB through a

region of space enclosed by a wire loop. The magnetic flux is defined by
a surface integral:[12]

where dA is an element of the surface Σ enclosed by the wire

loop, B is the magnetic field. The dot product B·dA corresponds to an
infinitesimal amount of magnetic flux. In more visual terms, the
magnetic flux through the wire loop is proportional to the number
of magnetic field lines that pass through the loop.

When the flux through the surface changes, Faraday's law of

induction says that the wire loop acquires an electromotive
force (EMF).[note 1] The most widespread version of this law states that
the induced electromotive force in any closed circuit is equal to
the rate of change of the magnetic flux enclosed by the circuit:[16][17]

where  is the EMF and ΦB is the magnetic flux. The direction of the
electromotive force is given by Lenz's law which states that an
induced current will flow in the direction that will oppose the
change which produced it.[18] This is due to the negative sign in the
 previous equation. To increase the generated EMF, a common
approach is to exploit flux linkage by creating a tightly wound coil
of wire, composed of N identical turns, each with the same
magnetic flux going through them. The resulting EMF is
then N times that of one single wire.[19][20]

Generating an EMF through a variation of the magnetic flux

through the surface of a wire loop can be achieved in several
ways:

1. the magnetic field B changes (e.g. an alternating

magnetic field, or moving a wire loop towards a bar
magnet where the B field is stronger),
2. the wire loop is deformed and the surface Σ
changes,
3. the orientation of the surface dA changes (e.g.
spinning a wire loop into a fixed magnetic field),
4. any combination of the above

1. Magnetic Flux The magnetic flux linked with any surface is equal to

total number of magnetic lines of force passing normally through it. It is a
scalar quantity.
2. The phenomenon of generation of current or emf by changing the
magnetic flux is known as Electromagnetic Induction EMI).
3. Faraday’s Law of Electromagnetic Induction
First Law Whenever magnetic flux linked with the closed loop or circuit
changes, an emf induces in the loop or circuit which lasts so long as
change in flux continuous.
Second Law The induced emf in a closed loop or circuit is directly
proportional to the rate of change of magnetic flux linked with the closed
loop or circuit

where, N = number of turns in loop.

Negative sign indicates the Lenz’s law.
4. Lenz’s Law The direction of induced emf or induced current is such
that it always opposes the cause that produce it.
NOTE: Lenz’s law is a consequence of the law of conservation of
energy.
5. If N is the number of turns and R is the resistance of a coil. The
magnetic flux linked with its each turn changes by dФ in short time
interval dt, then induced current flowing through the coil is
6. If induced current is produced in a coil rotated in a uniform magnetic
field, then

7. Motional Emf The potential difference induced in a conductor of

length l moving with velocity v, in a direction perpendicular to magnetic
field B is given by

8. Fleming’s Right Hand Rule If the thumb, forefinger and middle finger
of right hand are stretched mutually perpendicular to each other such
that the forefinger points the direction of magnetic field, thumb points
towards the direction of magnetic force, then middle finger points
towards the direction of induced current in the conductor.

9. The induced emf developed between two ends of conductor of length

l rotating about one end with angular velocity ω in a direction
perpendicular to magnetic field is given by,

10. The induced emf can be produced in a coil by

(i) putting the coil/loop/circuit in varying magnetic field.
(ii) changing the area A of the coil inside the magnetic field,
(iii) changing the angle 0 between B and A.

Electrical generator

Rectangular wire loop rotating at angular velocity ω in radially outward

pointing magnetic field B of fixed magnitude. The circuit is completed by
brushes making sliding contact with top and bottom discs, which have
conducting rims. This is a simplified version of the drum generator.

The EMF generated by Faraday's law of induction due to relative

movement of a circuit and a magnetic field is the phenomenon
underlying electrical generators. When a permanent magnet is moved
relative to a conductor, or vice versa, an electromotive force is created. If
the wire is connected through an electrical load, current will flow, and
thus electrical energy is generated, converting the mechanical energy of
motion to electrical energy. For example, the drum generator is based
upon the figure to the bottom-right. A different implementation of this
idea is the Faraday's disc, shown in simplified form on the right.

In the Faraday's disc example, the disc is rotated in a uniform magnetic

field perpendicular to the disc, causing a current to flow in the radial arm
due to the Lorentz force. Mechanical work is necessary to drive this
current. When the generated current flows through the conducting rim, a
magnetic field is generated by this current through Ampère's circuital
law (labelled "induced B" in the figure). The rim thus becomes
an electromagnet that resists rotation of the disc (an example of Lenz's
law). On the far side of the figure, the return current flows from the
rotating arm through the far side of the rim to the bottom brush. The B-
field induced by this return current opposes the applied B-field, tending
to decrease the flux through that side of the circuit, opposing
the increase in flux due to rotation. On the near side of the figure, the
return current flows from the rotating arm through the near side of the
rim to the bottom brush. The induced B-field increases the flux on this
side of the circuit, opposing the decrease in flux due to r the rotation.
The energy required to keep the disc moving, despite this reactive force,
is exactly equal to the electrical energy generated (plus energy wasted
due to friction, Joule heating, and other inefficiencies). This behavior is
common to all generators converting mechanical energy to electrical
energy.
Eddy currents
Electrical conductors moving through a steady magnetic field, or
stationary conductors within a changing magnetic field, will have circular
currents induced within them by induction, called eddy currents. Eddy
currents flow in closed loops in planes perpendicular to the magnetic
field. They have useful applications in eddy current brakes and induction
heating systems. However eddy currents induced in the metal magnetic
cores of transformers and AC motors and generators are undesirable
since they dissipate energy (called core losses) as heat in the resistance
of the metal. Cores for these devices use a number of methods to
reduce eddy currents:

 Cores of low frequency alternating current electromagnets and

transformers, instead of being solid metal, are often made of
stacks of metal sheets, called laminations, separated by
nonconductive coatings. These thin plates reduce the
undesirable parasitic eddy currents, as described below.
 Inductors and transformers used at higher frequencies often
have magnetic cores made of nonconductive magnetic
materials such as ferrite or iron powder held together with a
resin binder.

Electromagnet laminations
Eddy currents occur when a solid metallic mass is rotated in a magnetic
field, because the outer portion of the metal cuts more magnetic lines of
force than the inner portion; hence the induced electromotive force is not
uniform; this tends to cause electric currents between the points of
greatest and least potential. Eddy currents consume a considerable
amount of energy and often cause a harmful rise in temperature.[25]

Only five laminations or plates are shown in this example, so as to show

the subdivision of the eddy currents. In practical use, the number of
laminations or punchings ranges from 40 to 66 per inch (16 to 26 per
centimetre), and brings the eddy current loss down to about one percent.
While the plates can be separated by insulation, the voltage is so low
that the natural rust/oxide coating of the plates is enough to prevent
current flow across the laminations.
Two research questions (RQs) were then formulated. RQ1) Are the
difficulties about the teaching/learning of EMI the same in Italy as those
reported in the international literature? RQ2) If and how, does the
conceptual understanding of EMI change at different levels of education,
from secondary school students to students attending a master degree
in physics/mathematics, to physics teachers? 4 Our analysis has been
performed with the aid of: 1. A 14-questions multiple choice
questionnaire given to 16 students of the university course “Preparations
of Didactical Experiences” attended, in the academic year 2017-2018 at
the University of Milano, by 4 students of the 1st year of the Master
Degree in Mathematics (1MDM), 9 students of the 1st year of the Master
Degree in Physics (1MDP), and 3 Physics Teachers (PT) who had
already taken a Master Degree in Physics. Explanations have always
been asked for every question. The questionnaire was delivered in
January 2018; 2. A 6-questions multiple choice questionnaire – subset of
the previous 14-questions questionnaire – (see Appendix for the English
version) given, in the Spring 2018, to 33 students of the last year of a
Scientific High School (SHS), attending the Scientific High School “Palli”
in Casale Monferrato, a little town about a hundred kilometres west of
Milano, that had already faced EMI at school. Explanatory answers have
always been asked for every question; 3. Oral exams to university
students on a didactical path about EMI for secondary school. In order to
answer correctly, students had to know (and, having in mind the
ministerial indications given above, we did expect them to) that an
electromotive force is produced by the flux of the time variation of a
magnetic field and by the circulation of the magnetic part of the Lorentz
force per unit charge, as given by the following formula [1,5]: 𝑒𝑚𝑓 = −
𝑑𝜙𝑠𝛾 (𝐵⃗ ) 𝑑𝑡 = −𝜙𝑆𝛾 ( 𝑑𝐵⃗ 𝑑𝑡) + 𝐶𝛾(𝑣⃑ × 𝐵⃗⃑) , (2) where we have
indicated with 𝜙𝑆𝛾 the flux through the surface 𝑆𝛾 having  as boundary
and with 𝑣 the velocity of the part of subjected to the magnetic field
𝐵⃗ . 4. Results from the 14-questions and the 6-questions multiple c