What is EMF? How do we test for it?

Electromotive Force (EMF) is the measure of how much energy a source like a battery gives to the charges in a circuit. As with most things, this energy source is not 100% efficient, and has an associated internal resistance. EMF is the ideal voltage of a power source, if there was no internal resistance.To find the EMF of a source, we can use Ohm's Law and Kirchoff's Law. From V = IR, and the fact that the voltage in a series circuit is divided between the components while the current is the same, we can see that the voltage across the whole battery is the difference between the EMF and the voltage across the internal resistor. That means that EMF = I(R+r) where R is the resistance of the circuit and r is the internal resistance. By varying R and plotting the voltage across the battery against the current in the circuit we can find the internal resistance: the slope of the line; and the ideal voltage output (EMF): the y-intercept.

KM
Answered by Kieran M. Physics tutor

3538 Views

See similar Physics A Level tutors

Related Physics A Level answers

All answers ▸

How would you calculate the vertical and horizontal components of the velocity of an object with an initial velocity of 15m/s which is travelling upwards at an angle of 30 degrees to the horizontal?


A gun of mass 10kg fires a bullet of mass 240g at a speed of 300ms-1. What is the speed of the gun's recoil?


Find current and voltage across resistors R1 and R2, when they connected in parallel and in series. A 12V battery is connected, R1=4Ω and R2=3Ω.


Where does the simple harmonic motion equation come from and what does it mean?


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

MyTutor is part of the IXL family of brands:

© 2025 by IXL Learning