What is Electromotive force (EMF)? How is it related to the potential difference? Is it created by the potential difference in any conductor? Is it a process? Why is it called force?
Does writing EMF instead of voltage make any difference in AC circuits? (Studying alternating current I found some books using EMF while others used voltage.)
Answer
I dislike the term EMF (Electromotive force) as it is very confusing.
Electromotive force, also called emf (denoted $\mathcal{E}$ and measured in volts), is the voltage developed by any source of electrical energy such as a battery or dynamo.
Which means that all EMF are voltages but not all voltages are EMF. A voltage is only an EMF if it is a source of energy.
Kind of like the distinction between luminescent light (from a light bulb) and reflected light (from your desk) if you measure it there is no physical measurable difference. The only difference is that one is a source and the other is not.
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