YOU ARE LEARNING:
What Is the Generator Effect?
What Is the Generator Effect?
We can induce voltage in a wire by moving a magnetic field relative to the wire.
What is it that makes a current move around a circuit?
How can you induce potential difference across a current-carrying conductor? Pick all the options you think are correct.
You can select multiple answers
What do we call it when we induce potential difference in a current-carrying conductor?
What do you think might be another name for electromagnetic induction?
The generator effect describes how we can generate a potential difference with electromagnetism. There are two ways this can be done.
First, we can move a closed-circuit wire through a stationary magnetic field.
This generates a current through the wire!
Secondly, we can move a bar magnet through a closed-circuit coil of wire.
This also generates a current through the wire! We will now look at an experiment that demonstrates this effect.
But first, can you remember what we use to measure the current in a circuit?
What is the current, when the magnet is stationary?
![](https://cdn.hejalbert.se/teen/blocks-images/en_GB/c8R6DJiYQ7CMWIBSfvLU.png)
As the magnet moves further into the coil, what happens to the current reading on the ammeter?
A) Increases B) Decreases C) Stays the same
![](https://cdn.hejalbert.se/teen/blocks-images/en_GB/wHo52MvQYCfIxCjd0zxv.png)
What happens to the current reading on the ammeter when the magnet has moved fully into the coil and has stopped moving?
A) Positive B) Negative C) Back to zero
![](https://cdn.hejalbert.se/teen/blocks-images/en_GB/ijxPteNR7eSxGXRHrmww.png)
As the magnet is moved back out of the coil, what happens to the current reading on the ammeter?
A) Positive B) Negative C) Zero
![](https://cdn.hejalbert.se/teen/blocks-images/en_GB/RZu2I04sQxyaGe88gSlw.png)
As we move the magnet in and out of the coil of wire the ammeter reading changes.
As the magnet moves into the coil, the ammeter shows a positive current. As it moves out of the coil, the ammeter shows negative current. When the magnet is stationary, there is zero current.
This shows how a magnet moving in and out of a closed-circuit coil of wire generates current through the wire.
![](https://cdn.hejalbert.se/teen/blocks-images/en_GB/RZu2I04sQxyaGe88gSlw.png)