Cade Wamsley

Physics 1010
Professor Demars
Electromagnetic Induction.
One of the things I learned this semester that really interested me is the principle of
electromagnetic induction. It has a whole chapter dedicated to it in the book so I figured that it
was an important subject. As I have read into it and researched it some more I have learned that it
is even more important and common than I ever had thought. It is involved in everything from
credit cards to generators; even stop lights and the brakes in your hybrid car rely on the principle
of electromagnetic induction.
The scientist who discovered electromagnetic induction was named James Faraday. He
was a man who was not born of great privilege, his father was just a blacksmith and he had little
formal education. He was like most successful scientists he was self-educated and very
intelligent. Faraday went on to make one of the most important discoveries of all time especially
with the age of electricity that was shortly ahead. He made his discovery by moving a magnet
through loops of wire and found that electricity was created as a result, thus we have what was
later called electromagnetic induction. [EMI] Joseph Henry is also given credit for discovering
EMI because he was working on it at the same time. (Hewitt)
The discovery of electromagnetic induction led to a new way to create electricity, before
its discovery the only way was by batteries which wasnt very efficient. With this new discovery
came Faradays Law which states The induced voltage in a coil is proportional to the product of
its number of loops, the cross-sectional area of each loop and the rate at which the magnetic

field changes within those loops. So in essence the more loops and the faster the magnet is
moving the more voltage is created. Now what does this mean for us in everyday life? Nearly all
of our electricity is captured through this method and we use electricity every day. The most
common use of EMI is the generator. A generator works by taking mechanical or kinetic energy
and using that energy to convert the mechanical energy into electricity.
Generators produce electricity from mechanical energy based on the phenomenon called
electromagnetic induction. The mechanical energy in turn is converted from chemical or nuclear
energy in various types of fuel, or obtained from renewable sources, such as wind or falling
water.
Turbines and internal-combustion engines are the common systems that supply the mechanical
energy for such devices. Generators are made in a wide range of sizes, from very small machines
with a few watts output to very large power plant devices providing gigawatts of power.
(Rozenblat)
An electric generator/motor is also what hybrid cars rely upon to recapture kinetic energy
that would otherwise be lost. In a typical gas powered car all the kinetic energy from cruising
down a hill or braking is lost. But because of EMI and generators the kinetic energy from a
heavy vehicle coming to a stop is converted into electricity which can be stored in a battery and
then reused when accelerating. This recapture of energy greatly increases efficiency when
driving in a city where a lot of stopping and going is required. Dan Edmunds explains it this way,
While consumers benefit from the improved fuel economy, hybrids give automakers a way to
meet ever-tightening Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements and proposed

limits on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Hybrids have been in the U.S. market since late 1999,
But what exactly is a hybrid, and how does it improve fuel economy?
Defining Hybrids
A vehicle is a hybrid if it utilizes more than one form of onboard energy to achieve propulsion. In
practice, that means a hybrid will have a traditional internal-combustion engine and a fuel tank,
as well as one or more electric motors and a battery pack.
Hybrids are most often gasoline-burning machines that utilize their electric bits to collect and
reuse energy that normally goes to waste in standard cars.
Motor-generator: The more accurate term for the electric motor. It provides supplemental
acceleration "oomph" when operating as a motor by drawing electricity from the battery. Several
hybrids have two, and a few models employ three.
Regenerative braking: An important function of the motor-generator is to generate electricity to
recharge the battery as it absorbs a portion of the vehicle's momentum when slowing or coasting
downhill. Normal cars waste all of their excess momentum as heat in the brakes. Regenerative
braking is insufficient to stop a car quickly, so conventional hydraulic brakes are still necessary.
Electric drive: Operating the vehicle on electric power alone is possible if the hybrid system has
enough electrical capacity. The maximum speed and distance over which electric-only operation
can be sustained varies from essentially zero to a handful of miles, and has everything to do with
the weight and aerodynamics of the vehicle, the strength of the motor-generator and, more than
anything else, the capacity of the battery. (Edmunds)
Through the use of a simple electric generator all of those fuel saving technologies are real.

Another use of EMI is a relatively new technology called an induction cooktop an

induction cooktop is used as a replacement for coil or gas powered stoves. Surprisingly it seems
to work just as good and maybe even better than the traditional cooktop. Home and garden
magazine says this about them.
Induction cooktops boast speed surpassing electric, temperature response rivaling gas, and
safety and cleaning ease that beat out glass-and-ceramic-top stoves. Whereas other stoves heat
food indirectly by applying an open flame or a hot surface to the bottom of cookware, induction
cooktops use electromagnetism to cut out the middleman and heat the cookware itself. The result
is more evenly heated food and a cooler cooktop. (Gerbis)
In order to make this molecular kinetic energy useful for cooking, electricity and magnetism
must be converted into heat. That's where the need for iron-containing cookware comes in. Iron
is a relatively poor conductor of electricity, which is another way of saying it has a high
resistance. When a current is run through a material with a high resistance, much of the current is
converted to heat. Most of the heat used to cook food on an induction cooktop comes from this
electrical resistance, and the rest comes from heat generated by changes in the magnetic structure
of the cookware. Therefore, causing the generation of heat sufficient to boil water and make
crispy hash browns. Which sounds like a great use of faradays law to me.

Works cited

Jones, A. Z. (2016, October 29). How Electromagnetic Induction Creates Current. Retrieved
December 07, 2016, from http://physics.about.com/od/physicsetoh/g/induction.htm

Nicholas Gerbis "How Induction Cooktops Work" 9 December 2009.

HowStuffWorks.com. <http://home.howstuffworks.com/induction-cooktops.htm> 7 December
2016

Rozenblat, L. (2008, October 1). HOW AN ELECTRIC GENERATOR WORKS. Retrieved

December 07, 2016, from http://www.generatorguide.net/howgeneratorworks.html

Dan Edmunds, Director of Vehicle Testing. (2013, February 17). What Are Hybrid Cars and How
Do They Work? Retrieved December 07, 2016, from https://www.edmunds.com/fueleconomy/what-is-a-hybrid-car-how-do-hybrids-work.html

Hewitt, P. G. (2015). Conceptual physics. Boston: Pearson; Chapter 25, pg 473