Skip to content
Stan’s Legacy

Induced EMF from a changing flux

What voltage does a coil see while the flux through it changes?

The formula
ε=NΔΦΔt
ε
Induced EMF, V
N
Turns
ΔΦ
Flux change, Wb
Δt
Time, s
LaTeX
ε = -N \frac{ΔΦ}{Δt}

Work it out

Number of turns in the pickup coil.

µWb

How much the flux through one turn changed — e.g. the swing read off the flux calculation.

ms

How long that change took.

Compare with a variation

Result

ε Induced EMF -500 mV

The voltage the coil produces while the flux is changing. Sign follows Lenz's law against the sign given for the flux change.

With your numbers
-500mV=5050µWb5ms
LaTeX
-500\,\mathrm{mV} = -50 \frac{50\,\mathrm{µWb}}{5\,\mathrm{ms}}

This result is a link — the address bar holds your numbers, so it can be pasted into a post and opened to the same answer.

What this looks like

Induced EMF against turns Turns swept from 25 to 75 with everything else held at your numbers. The dashed lines cross where you are.
Induced EMF against turnsInduced EMF falls from -250 mV to -750 mV as turns rises from 25 to 75. At your turns of 50 it is -500 mV.-800-600-400-2002040608050-500 mVTurnsInduced EMF (mV)
The formula behind the curve
ε=NΔΦΔt
ε
Induced EMF, V
N
Turns
ΔΦ
Flux change, Wb
Δt
Time, s
LaTeX
ε = -N \frac{ΔΦ}{Δt}
What moves the answer Each input moved 10% either way, with the others held still, and the effect on induced EMF.
What moves the answerInduced EMF is most sensitive to Time, which moves it by about 11.1% for a 10% change. It is least sensitive to Flux change, at about 10%.Change in the answer when each input moves by 10%-20%-10%10%20%Time±11.1Turns±10Flux change±10
The formula behind the curve
ε=NΔΦΔt
ε
Induced EMF, V
N
Turns
ΔΦ
Flux change, Wb
Δt
Time, s
LaTeX
ε = -N \frac{ΔΦ}{Δt}

Method

  1. Convert the flux change to webers and the time to seconds.
  2. Divide the flux change by the time to get the average rate of change over the interval — this is what dΦ/dt means for a real, discrete measurement rather than an instantaneous one.
  3. Multiply by the number of turns: each turn contributes its own share of the same changing flux, and the coil sees the sum.
  4. The minus sign is Lenz's law — the induced EMF opposes the change that made it — and only matters once a sign convention for the flux change has been chosen. The magnitude is what sizes the winding.

Assumptions

  • The rate of change is treated as constant over the interval. A real pulsed field changes fastest at the edges of the pulse, so this is the average EMF, not the peak — a sharper edge gives a higher instantaneous voltage than this figure.
  • Every turn links the same flux change. In a real coil, turns nearer the field source see more change than turns further out; this treats the winding as tightly bunched.
  • No resistive or eddy-current loss is modelled — this is the EMF generated, not the voltage that would be measured across a loaded winding.