The Direction of Electric Current

The armature ABCD is initially vertical, with its side (AB) up and another side (CD) down. The
direction of the magnetic field is from left to right as the armature undergoes half rotation clockwise;
one arm moves down while the other moves up. According to Fleming’s Right Hand Rule, the
current will flow in the direction of DCBA. So, the current will flow from B1 to B2 through the
Galvanometer during the next half rotation; arm AB moves up while arm CD moves down. Again
from Fleming’s Right Hand Rule, current will flow in the direction of ABCD, from B2 to B1 bond
through the galvanometer. Thus, the induced current will change its direction in every half rotation.

The expression for instantaneous value of induced emf:

Consider the number of turns in the coil of the A.C. generator are N, its face area for each turn is A, the
magnitude of the magnetic field is B and θ

is the angle which normal to the coil makes with magnetic field B at any instant t. Let the angular
velocity with which the coil rotates be ω

Then the magnetic flux linked with the coil of the A.C. generator at any instant t will be given by:

ϕ=NBAcosθ

or, ϕ=NBAωt

By Faraday’s flux rule, the induced emf is given by:

ε=−dϕdt⇒ε=−ddt(NBAcosωt)⇒ε=NBAωsinωt∴ε=ε∘sinωt

where ε∘=NBAω

. This equation gives the expression for instantaneous value of induced emf.

Note: The generation of A.C. is more economical than the generation of D.C. Additionally, the
alternating voltage can be easily stepped up or stepped down, as per the requirement of the circuit with
the help of a transformer.