Use compatible orientations for the loop and spanning surface. The relevant Maxwell equations are
The magnetic flux transport for a moving circuit separates the change of the field from the motion of its boundary. To see the boundary term, freeze at time . Orient the closed swept surface as . Its side element is
to first order. Hence its flux is . By the divergence theorem and , the sum of the three fluxes is zero, giving the purely geometric change
Adding the temporal field change and applying Stokes theorem yields
Thus
The boundary contribution is the motional electromotive force; the field contribution is Faraday's law.
For a moving closed circuit bounding an oriented surface , Faraday's law is
Here is the electric field, the magnetic field, the local velocity of a circuit element, and the electromagnetic electromotive force per unit charge around the circuit. The line orientation and normal obey the right-hand rule. The flux derivative is a total derivative and includes both changing field and changing surface. The term is the motional electromotive force. A battery contributes an additional non-electromagnetic source electromotive force.
Take positive current around , so it runs upward through the bar. With , the oriented magnetic flux is and the motional electromotive force is . Ohm's law therefore gives
If , the bar current is ; if , it is . The induced part opposes the battery for a bar moving to the right when .
Figure 1.
Sliding-bar circuit with positive current upward and magnetic field out of the page
.