La fuerza electromotriz (FEM) es toda causa capaz de mantener una diferencia de potencial entre dos puntos de un circuito abierto o de producir una corriente eléctrica en un circuito cerrado. Es una característica de cada generador eléctrico. Con carácter general puede explicarse por la existencia de un campo electromotor cuya circulación, , define la fuerza electromotriz del generador. Se define como el trabajo que el generador realiza para pasar por su interior la unidad de carga positiva del polo negativo al positivo, dividido por el valor en Culombios de dicha carga. Esto se justifica en el hecho de que cuando circula esta unidad de carga por el circuito exterior al generador, desde el polo positivo al negativo, es necesario realizar un trabajo o consumo de energía (mecánica, química, etcétera) para transportarla por el interior desde un punto de menor potencial (el polo negativo al cual llega) a otro de mayor potencial (el polo positivo por el cual sale). La FEM se mide en voltios, al igual que el potencial eléctrico. Por lo que queda que: Se relaciona con la diferencia de potencial entre los bornes y la resistencia interna del generador mediante la fórmula (el producto es la caída de potencial que se produce en el interior del generador a causa de la resistencia óhmica que ofrece al paso de la corriente). La FEM de un generador coincide con la diferencia de potencial en circuito abierto. La fuerza electromotriz de inducción (o inducida) en un circuito cerrado es igual a la variación del flujo de inducción del campo magnético que lo atraviesa en la unidad de tiempo, lo que se expresa por la fórmula (ley de Faraday). El signo - (ley de Lenz) indica que el sentido de la FEM inducida es tal que se opone al descrito por la ley de Faraday ().

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Electromotive force, also called emf (denoted and measured in volts), is the voltage developed by any source of electrical energy such as a battery or dynamo. It is generally defined as the electrical potential for a source in a circuit. A device that supplies electrical energy is called a seat of electromotive force or emf. Emfs convert chemical, mechanical, and other forms of energy into electrical energy. The product of such a device is also known as emf. The word "force" in this case is not used to mean mechanical force, measured in newtons, but a potential, or energy per unit of charge, measured in volts. In electromagnetic induction, emf can be defined around a closed loop as the electromagnetic work that would be done on a charge if it travels once around that loop.(While the charge travels around the loop, it can simultaneously lose the energy gained via resistance into thermal energy.) For a time-varying magnetic flux linking a loop, the electric potential scalar field is not defined due to circulating electric vector field, but nevertheless an emf does work that can be measured as a virtual electric potential around that loop. In the case of a two-terminal device (such as an electrochemical cell or electromagnetic generator) which is modeled as a Thévenin's equivalent circuit, the equivalent emf can be measured as the open-circuit potential difference or voltage between the two terminals. This potential difference can drive a current if an external circuit is attached to the terminals. Devices that can provide emf include electrochemical cells, thermoelectric devices, solar cells, photodiodes, electrical generators, transformer and even Van de Graaff generators. In nature, emf is generated whenever magnetic field fluctuations occur through a surface. The shifting of the Earth's magnetic field during a geomagnetic storm, induces currents in the electrical grid as the lines of the magnetic field are shifted about and cut across the conductors. In the case of a battery, the charge separation that gives rise to a voltage difference between the terminals is accomplished by chemical reactions at the electrodes that convert chemical potential energy into electromagnetic potential energy. A voltaic cell can be thought of as having a "charge pump" of atomic dimensions at each electrode, that is: A source of emf can be thought of as a kind of charge pump that acts to move positive charge from a point of low potential through its interior to a point of high potential. … By chemical, mechanical or other means, the source of emf performs work dW on that charge to move it to the high potential terminal. The emf ℰ of the source is defined as the work dW done per charge dq: ℰ = dW/dq. Around 1830, Michael Faraday established that the reactions at each of the two electrode–electrolyte interfaces provide the "seat of emf" for the voltaic cell, that is, these reactions drive the current and are not an endless source of energy as was initially thought. In the open-circuit case, charge separation continues until the electrical field from the separated charges is sufficient to arrest the reactions. Years earlier, Alessandro Volta, who had measured a contact potential difference at the metal–metal (electrode–electrode) interface of his cells, had held the incorrect opinion that contact alone (without taking into account a chemical reaction) was the origin of the emf. In the case of an electrical generator, a time-varying magnetic field inside the generator creates an electric field via electromagnetic induction, which in turn creates a voltage difference between the generator terminals. Charge separation takes place within the generator, with electrons flowing away from one terminal and toward the other, until, in the open-circuit case, sufficient electric field builds up to make further charge separation impossible. Again the emf is countered by the electrical voltage due to charge separation. If a load is attached, this voltage can drive a current. The general principle governing the emf in such electrical machines is Faraday's law of induction.

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