A 10 m wide spacecraft moves through the interstellar space at a speed 3 × 107 m s–1. A magnetic field B = 3 × 10–10 T exists in the space in a direction perpendicular to the plane of motion. Treating the spacecraft as a conductor, calculate the emf induced across its width.
Given:
Speed of spacecraft v=3× 107m/s
Magnetic field intensity B=
Width of spacecraft l=10m
We know that,
motional emf produced due to a conductor of length l moving with velocity v in a magnetic field B is given by
Since v⃗ and B⃗ are perpendicular and their cross product is parallel to l⃗, eqn.(i) reduces to
Putting the values of v, B and l we get,
Therefore, emf induced across the width of spacecraft is 0.09V