The merger of electricity and magnetism from distinct phenomena into electromagnetism is tied to three closely related events. The first was Hans Christian Ørsted’s accidental discovery of the influence of an electric current on a magnetic needle—namely, that magnetic fields are produced by electric currents. Ørsted’s 1820 report of his observation spurred an intense effort by scientists to prove that magnetic fields can induce currents. The second event was Faraday’s experimental proof that a changing magnetic field can induce a current in a circuit. The third was Maxwell’s prediction that a changing electric field has an associated magnetic field. The technological revolution attributed to the development of electric power and radio communications can be traced to these three landmarks.
Faraday’s law of induction
Faraday’s discovery in 1831 of the phenomenon of magnetic induction is one of the great milestones in the quest toward understanding and exploiting nature. Stated simply, Faraday found that (1) a changing magnetic field in a circuit induces an electromotive force in the circuit; and (2) the magnitude of the electromotive force equals the rate at which the flux of the magnetic field through the circuit changes. The flux is a measure of how much field penetrates through the circuit. The electromotive force is measured in volts and is represented by the equation
Here, Φ, the flux of the vector field B through the circuit, measures how much of the field passes through the circuit. To illustrate the meaning of flux, imagine how much water from a steady rain will pass through a circular ring of area A. When the ring is placed parallel to the path of the water drops, no water passes through the ring. The maximum rate at which drops of rain pass through the ring occurs when the surface is perpendicular to the motion of the drops. The rate of water drops crossing the surface is the flux of the vector field ρv through that surface, where ρ is the density of water drops and v represents the velocity of the water. Clearly, the angle between v and the surface is essential in determining the flux. To specify the orientation of the surface, a vector A is defined so that its magnitude is the surface area A in units of square metres and its direction is perpendicular to the surface. The rate at which raindrops pass through the surface is ρv cos θA, where θ is the angle between v and A. Using vector notation, the flux is ρv · A. For the magnetic field, the amount of flux through a small area represented by the vector dA is given by B · dA. For a circuit consisting of a single turn of wire, adding the contributions from the entire surface that is surrounded by the wire gives the magnetic flux Φ of equation (1). The rate of change of this flux is the induced electromotive force. The units of magnetic flux are webers, with one weber equaling one tesla per square metre. Finally, the minus sign in equation (1) indicates the direction of the induced electromotive force and hence of any induced current. The magnetic flux through the circuit generated by the induced current is in whatever direction will keep the total flux in the circuit from changing. The minus sign in equation (1) is an example of Lenz’s law for magnetic systems. This law, deduced by the Russian-born physicist Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz, states that “what happens is that which opposes any change in the system.”
Faraday’s law is valid regardless of the process that causes the magnetic flux to change. It may be that a magnet is moved closer to a circuit or that a circuit is moved closer to a magnet. shows a magnet brought near a conducting ring and gives the direction of the induced current and field, thus illustrating both Faraday’s and Lenz’s laws. Another alternative is that the circuit may change in size in a fixed external magnetic field or, as in the case of alternating-current (AC) generation, that the circuit may be a coil of conducting wire rotating in a magnetic field so that the flux Φ varies sinusoidally in time.
The magnetic flux Φ through a circuit has to be considered carefully in the application of Faraday’s law given in equation (1). For example, if a circuit consists of a coil with five closely spaced turns and if ϕ is the magnetic flux through a single turn, then the value of Φ for the five-turn circuit that must be used in Faraday’s law is Φ = 5ϕ. If the five turns are not the same size and closely spaced, the problem of determining Φ can be quite complex.
Self-inductance and mutual inductance
The self-inductance of a circuit is used to describe the reaction of the circuit to a changing current in the circuit, while the mutual inductance with respect to a second circuit describes the reaction to a changing current in the second circuit. When a current i1 flows in circuit 1, i1 produces a magnetic field B1; the magnetic flux through circuit 1 due to current i1 is Φ11. Since B1 is proportional to i1, Φ11 is as well. The constant of proportionality is the self-inductance L1 of the circuit. It is defined by the equation
The units of inductance are henrys. If a second circuit is present, some of the field B1 will pass through circuit 2 and there will be a magnetic flux Φ21 in circuit 2 due to the current i1. The mutual inductance M21 is given by
The magnetic flux in circuit 1 due to a current in circuit 2 is given by Φ12 = M12i2. An important property of the mutual inductance is that M21 = M12. It is therefore sufficient to use the label M without subscripts for the mutual inductance of two circuits.
The value of the mutual inductance of two circuits can range from +Square root of√L1L2 to −Square root of√L1L2, depending on the flux linkage between the circuits. If the two circuits are very far apart or if the field of one circuit provides no magnetic flux through the other circuit, the mutual inductance is zero. The maximum possible value of the mutual inductance of two circuits is approached as the two circuits produce B fields with increasingly similar spatial configurations.
If the rate of change with respect to time is taken for the terms on both sides of equation (2), the result is dΦ11/dt = L1di1/dt. According to Faraday’s law, dΦ11/dt is the negative of the induced electromotive force. The result is the equation frequently used for a single inductor in an AC circuit—i.e.,
The phenomenon of self-induction was first recognized by the American scientist Joseph Henry. He was able to generate large and spectacular electric arcs by interrupting the current in a large copper coil with many turns. While a steady current is flowing in a coil, the energy in the magnetic field is given by 1/2Li2. If both the inductance L and the current i are large, the amount of energy is also large. If the current is interrupted, as, for example, by opening a knife-blade switch, the current and therefore the magnetic flux through the coil drop quickly. Equation (4) describes the resulting electromotive force induced in the coil, and a large potential difference is developed between the two poles of the switch. The energy stored in the magnetic field of the coil is dissipated as heat and radiation in an electric arc across the space between the terminals of the switch. Due to advances in superconducting wires for electromagnets, it is possible to use large magnets with magnetic fields of several teslas for temporarily storing electric energy as energy in the magnetic field. This is done to accommodate short-term fluctuations in the consumption of electric power.
A transformer is an example of a device that uses circuits with maximum mutual induction. illustrates the configuration of a typical transformer. Here, coils of insulated conducting wire are wound around a ring of iron constructed of thin isolated laminations or sheets. The laminations minimize eddy currents in the iron. Eddy currents are circulatory currents induced in the metal by the changing magnetic field. These currents produce an undesirable by-product—heat in the iron. Energy loss in a transformer can be reduced by using thinner laminations, very “soft” (low-carbon) iron and wire with a larger cross section, or by winding the primary and secondary circuits with conductors that have very low resistance. Unfortunately, reducing the heat loss increases the cost of transformers. Transformers used to transmit and distribute power are commonly 98 to 99 percent efficient. While eddy currents are a problem in transformers, they are useful for heating objects in a vacuum. Eddy currents are induced in the object to be heated by surrounding a relatively nonconducting vacuum enclosure with a coil carrying a high-frequency alternating current.
In a transformer, the iron ensures that nearly all the lines of B passing through one circuit also pass through the second circuit and that, in fact, essentially all the magnetic flux is confined to the iron. Each turn of the conducting coils has the same magnetic flux; thus, the total flux for each coil is proportional to the number of turns in the coil. As a result, if a source of sinusoidally varying electromotive force is connected to one coil, the electromotive force in the second coil is given by
Thus, depending on the ratio of N2 to N1 (where N1 and N2 are the number of turns in the first and second coils, respectively), the transformer can be either a step-up or a step-down device for alternating voltages. For many reasons, including safety, generation and consumption of electric power occur at relatively low voltages. Step-up transformers are used to obtain high voltages before electric power is transmitted, since for a given amount of power, the current in the transmission lines is much smaller. This minimizes energy lost by resistive heating of the conductors.
Faraday’s law constitutes the basis for the power industry and for the transformation of mechanical energy into electric energy. In 1821, a decade before his discovery of magnetic induction, Faraday conducted experiments with electric wires rotating around compass needles. This earlier work, in which a wire carrying a current rotated around a magnetized needle and a magnetic needle was made to rotate around a wire carrying an electric current, provided the groundwork for the development of the electric motor.