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Suppose we have a surface S(x,y) = x^2-2y for 0<x<2,0<y<5 , and a magnetic field (2t,3t+1,t).

To find the total magnetic flux through the surface S we find a normal vector to S n = (-Sx,-Sy,1) = n = (-2x,-2,1)

V = -dΦ/dt = 40V

But voltage related to what reference?

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    $\begingroup$ It is better to use the term electromotive force instead of voltage. This simply means that if you slowly move a particle with unit charge around the boundary of that surface against the direction of electric field until you reach the starting point, the amount of work you have done is equal to the electromotive force. $\endgroup$
    – Hossein
    Commented Apr 10, 2022 at 18:32
  • $\begingroup$ @Hosein what you say doesnt make any sense.Electric potential isnt the same with electric potential energy. $\endgroup$
    – Miss Mulan
    Commented Apr 10, 2022 at 18:48
  • $\begingroup$ Electric potential is the electric potential energy for a unit of charge, by definition : $U=q.V$ $\endgroup$
    – Hossein
    Commented Apr 10, 2022 at 18:53
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    $\begingroup$ Hosein is right, except he really means "amount of work per unit charge" is equal to the electromotive force. There is no "reference point" with respect to which you measure this "voltage". Faraday's law simply states that the integral of the E-field (i.e. the emf) around the loop that bounds the surface is the negative rate of change of the flux through the surface. $\endgroup$
    – Puk
    Commented Apr 10, 2022 at 18:56
  • $\begingroup$ @Puk so if the loop of wire had the same shape with S(x,y) then we would have 40V? $\endgroup$
    – Miss Mulan
    Commented Apr 10, 2022 at 19:39

1 Answer 1

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As Hosein mentioned, the issue is buried in the difference between electromotive force and voltage.

The scalar potential, which could reasonably be called the voltage field, encodes the curl free part of the electric field -

$$ \vec{E} = -\vec{\nabla} \Phi - \frac{\partial \vec{A}}{\partial t}$$ where $A$ is the magnetic vector potential.

In static problems, $\frac{\partial A}{\partial t}=0$, so the electric field is curl free and the work needed to move a charge $Q$ from $x_i$ to $x_f$ is

$$ Q\int_{\vec{x}_i}^{\vec{x}_f} q \vec{E}\cdot d\vec{l} $$

The answer is the same for any path you take, and is equivalent to $\Phi(x_i) - \Phi(x_f)$.

The same is absolutely not true when dealing with changing magnetic fields, which in general imply nonzero $\frac{\partial A}{\partial t}$. Nonetheless, it's still possible to compute the work per unit charge required to move an object in a closed loop $\gamma$:

$$\frac{W}{Q} = \oint_\gamma d\vec{x} \cdot (\vec{E} + \frac{d\vec{x}}{dt}\times B ) $$

$$ = - \frac{\partial}{\partial t}\oint_\gamma \vec{A}\cdot d\vec{x} = -\frac{\partial}{\partial t} \iint_S B\cdot dA $$

where $S$ is any surface with boundary $\partial S = \gamma$.

We assumed infinitesimally slow (i.e. adiabatic) transport of the charge to throw away the $v\times B$ term.

This quantity has units of volts, but is not a "voltage" in the traditional sense - there's no way to define it independent of the path you took to get from start to finish. It's useful to refer to the voltage as the path-independent part of the work to move a charge from A to B, and the electromotive force to account for the "extra" work you need to do against the induced electric field, which depends strongly on the path the charge takes.

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