What's the difference between Potential Difference and Electromotive Force

Although both are measured in volts, there is a subtle difference in their respective definition. Electromotive Force is the transfer of chemical energy in a battery (multiple single cells) into electrical energy per unit charge. Potential Difference is the transfer of electrical energy to other forms per unit charge, like kinetic in a motor or to hear in a heating element.
Both can be worked out numerically by computing V=W/Q

JJ

Related Physics A Level answers

All answers ▸

What is the Quark structure, Baryon number, and antiparticle of a kaon, K+, which has a strangeness of 1.


What is the difference between free vibrations and forced vibrations?


What are vectors?


What is the Young's modulus of a material?