"Reminds me somewhat of a sine wave."...... the area under the sine wave is of interest as we fiddle the coils too.
Coil spacing will be dictated by the pole count and diameter... in either winding scheme. If we make the magnets lonely (big intermagnet spacing) then the coils will be too. If we keep both the magnet size and number and the coils size and number the SAME, the area under the sine wave should be the same regardless of the diameter we place them on.
Bigger diameter, bigger the emf spike, but skinnier wave form... etc. Same for either system.
It is the vector addition of each wire added to all the other wires in the same phase that gives us the emf. Each wire will have emf dictated by flux change in proportion to the "angle of attack" at all points along the wire/coil. Reminds me somewhat of a sine wave.
We don't even need a N and S pole. The full sine wave shape will come up with just N poles passing the coil..... eg positive sign as say N magnet pole approaches, and back to zero at top dead center, and changes to negative sign after the magnet passes TDC and the coil sees a basically receding field....... presto full sine wave from a single pole. In this instance the emf max is when the magnet is over either leg
If we do that on a single wire, not a coil, TDC is when the pole is directly over the top of the wire ( zero emf) and sine will change to negative from there.
When we use N and S alternately, we want the S pole over one leg, and the N pole over the other leg at the same time ( of the same coil).... we double the changing flux and double the emf at that rpm.
Thats why we do what we do (in standard axials), and so coil placement can have a great effect on as to what happens, and when it happens.
Did that help or hinder
.................oztules