[Physics] Measuring voltage drop from induced current

inductionvoltage

I'm having trouble connecting voltage drops and induced current. Imagine you have a triangular loop make up off three resistors. You place this loop in a constantly changing magnetic field. This changing magnetic field will cause an EMF and a resulting induced current in the loop.

Now imagine I place a voltmeter across one of the resistors. What does the voltmeter read? $IR$ or $2IR$? If you look at the situation one way, you are measuring the voltage drop across one resistor, so $V$ would equal $IR$. But if you look at in another way, you're also measuring the voltage drop across the other half of the circuit which contains two resistors (hence a voltage drop of $2IR$).

I have tried to model this situation in my schools physics lab and I do see that there is a voltage drop across the resistor so the answer is not "there is no voltage drop". My model wasn't perfect, but it seemed to imply that the voltmeter read $3IR$? How could that be?

Best Answer

Once you add a changing magnetic field, the electric field no longer is conservative -- i.e. there is no longer a consistent definition of voltage!

A voltmeter measures $\int_a^b \mathbf{E} \cdot d\mathbf{s}$ along a path from $a$ to $b$. Normally this value doesn't depend on the path, so you can speak of "the" voltage drop between $a$ and $b$. In this situation, the value does depend on the path -- you can get $IR$ or $2IR$ or any other value depending on how you set up the wires of the voltmeter. For example, if you wound the voltmeter leads around the triangle several times, you might get $25IR$.