Question

Electromotive force of a battery represents

• A. force
• B. energy
• C. electric potential energy per unit charge
• D. current

Answer 1

Answer: (C)

electric potential energy per unit charge

When a voltage is generated by a battery, this generated voltage has been traditionally called an electromotive force or emf. The emf represents electric potential energy per unit charge (voltage) which has been made available to free electrons by the generating mechanism and is not a force.

The term emf is useful to distinguish voltage generated by the battery from those which occur in a circuit as a result of energy dissipation( Like Voltage drop across a resistor ) .