The tables below list the systems of electrical and magnetic units.
They only include units of interest in the field of Radio.
The older systems were the CGS(centimeter-gram-second) and Gaussian systems.
The Gaussian system being based on a mix of Electrostatic units (ESU) and Electromagnetic
units (EMU).
The current standard is the International System of Units (SI) and is sometimes referred to as
rationalised MKS units.
The MKS system of units is a physical system of units that expresses any given measurement using
fundamental units of the metre, kilogramme, and/or second (MKS)
SI Units
Quantity
Symbol
Dimensions
ESU
EMU
Mass
kilogram (kg)
1000
1000
Length
metre (m)
100
100
Time
second (s)
Power
watt (W)
ML2T-3
107
107
Electric Current
ampere (A)
I=ML1T-2
10c
0.1
Charge
coulomb (C)
TI
10c
0.1
Electric Potential
volt (V)
ML2T-3I-1
106/c
108
Resistance
ohm (
ML2T-3I-2
105/c2
109
Conductance
siemens (S)
M-1L-2T3I2
10-5c2
10-9
Inductance
henry (H)
ML2T-2I-2
105/c2
109
Capacitance
farad (F)
M-1L-2T4I2
10-5c2
10-9
volt/metre (V m-1)
MLT-3I-1
104/c
106
coulomb/cu.m. (C m-3)
L-3TI
c/105
10-7
coulomb/sq.m. (C m-2)
L-2TI
4 10-3c
4 10-5
ampere (A)
4 10c
4 10-1
ampere/metre (A m-1)
L-1I
4 c/10
4 10-3
weber (Wb)
ML2T-2I-1
106/c
108
tesla (T)
MT-2I-1
100/c
104
none
none
10-4c-2/(4
)
1/(4 )
Magnetic Potential
Magnetic Field Strength
Magnetic flux
Magnetic Induction
Magnetic Flux Density
Magnetic susceptibility
Magnetic Moment
L2I
105c
103
Magnetisation (Magnetic
moment/unit volume)
ampere/metre (A m-1)
L-1I
10-1c
10-3
Magnetic Polarisation
tesla (T)
MT-2I-1
102/(4
c)
104/(4 )
ampere metre (A m)
LI
103c
10
Fm
ampere (A)
4 10c
4 10-1
Magnetic Reluctance
ampere/weber(A Wb-1)
I2M-1L-2T2
4 10-9
4 10-9
Permittivity of space
farad/metre (F m-1)
M-1L-3T4I2
Permeability of space
henry/metre (H m-1)
MLT-2I-2
Notes:
c (the speed of light) = 299792458 metre/second exactly (by definition of the metre)
= 1/(4 10-7c2) = 8.85418781762039 x 10-12 farad/metre (approx)
= 4 10-7 = 1.25663706143592 x 10-6 henry/metre (approx)
CGS Units
Quantity
Symbol
Dimensions
Dimensions ESU
EMU
Mass
gram
gram
Length
centimetre
centimetre
Time
second
second
Power
ML2T-3
ML2T-3
erg/second
erg/second
Electric Current
ML1T-2
statamp
biot
Charge
TI
ML1T-1
franklin
abcoulomb
Electric Potential
ML2T-3I-1
MLT-1
statvolt
abvolt
(lines/second)
Resistance
ML2T-3I-2
L-1T
statohm
abohm
Conductance
M-1L-2T3I2
LT-1
statsiemens
absiemens
Inductance
ML2T-2I-2
L-1T2
stathenry
abhenry
Capacitance
M-1L-2T4I2
cm
abfarad
MLT-3I-1
ML-T-1
statvolt/cm
abvolt/cm
Electric displacement
L-2TI
ML1T-1
statcoulomb cm-2
abcoulomb cm2
Dielectric constant
Magnetic pole
Magnetic Potential
Magnetic field strength
M-1L-3T4I2
none
LI
ML2T-2
unit pole
dyne cm-1
= 4 lines of
force
ML1T-2
gilbert
L-1I
MLT-2
oersted
none
none
ML2T-2I-1
Magnetic flux
ML
maxwell
= 1 line
Magnetic Induction
(Magnetic flux density)
Magnetic permeability
Magnetic susceptibility
(or k)
MT-2I-1
ML-1
gauss
= 1 line cm-2
MLT-2I-2
L-2T2
darcy
ML1T-2I-1
none
none
none
Intensity of
Magnetisation
M (or I)
=J
L-1I
MLT-2
pole cm-2
Magnetic Moment
L2I
ML3T-2
pole cm
ML1T-2
gilbert
Magnetic Reluctance
L-2M-1T2I2
LT-2
gilbert/biot
Notes:
In the first column of Dimensions, I is used as a basic unit.
In the second it is expressed in terms of Length, Mass and Time.
Gaussian Units
The Gaussian system uses a mix of Electrostatic and Electromagnetic units
There are two common forms, Gaussian and Modified Gaussian, which defines electric current
in terms of magnetic units
Quantity
Symbol
Gaussian
Modified Gaussian
Electric Current
ESU franklin
EMU biot
Charge
ESU statcoulomb
ESU statcoulomb
Electric Potential
ESU statvolt
ESU statvolt
Resistance
ESU statohm
ESU statohm
Inductance
EMU abhenry
cm
Capacitance
cm
cm
ESU statvolt/cm
ESU statvolt/cm
ESU statcoulomb/cm2
ESU statcoulomb/cm2
none
none
EMU gilbert
EMU gilbert
EMU oersted
EMU oersted
EMU maxwell
= 1 line
EMU maxwell
= 1 line
EMU gauss
EMU gauss
Magnetic permeability
EMU darcy
EMU darcy
Magnetic susceptibility
none
none
Electric displacement
Dielectric constant
Magnetic pole
Magnetic Potential
Magnetic field strength
Magnetic flux
Magnetic Induction
(Magnetic flux density)
Intensity of
Magnetisation
Magnetic Moment
EMU pole cm
EMU pole cm
EMU gilbert
EMU gilbert
Magnetic Reluctance
EMU
EMU
Gaussian
Electric Current
Charge
Resistance
SI
I/
I
Q/
V
R
Inductance
Capacitance
Electric displacement
L
C/(
E
D
Dielectric constant
Magnetic pole
/
P
Magnetic Potential
Magnetic field strength
Magnetic flux
Magnetic Induction
Magnetic susceptibility
or k
Intensity of Magnetisation
Magnetic Moment
Magnetic Reluctance
M
m
G
S
In Gaussian units:
On simplifying
Then using
we get:
1 ESU unit
1 EMU unit
Current
Charge
Potential
Power
Resistance
Conductance
Inductance
Capacitance
Magnetic flux
Magnetic induction
Magnetic field strength
Magnetisation
Electric field strength
Electric displacement
334 A
334 C
300 V
100 nW
90 G
1 pS
90 GH
1 pF
300 Wb
3 MT
3 nA/metre
33 nA/metre
30000 V/metre
265 nC/metre
10 A
10 C
10 nV
100 nW
1n
1 GS
1 nH
1 GF
10 nWb
100 T
80 A/metre
1000 A/metre
1 V/metre
8000 C/metre
The electrostatic system of units is a system of units used to measure electrical quantities of
electric charge, electric current, and voltage within the centimeter-gram-second (or "CGS")
system of metric units.
In electrostatic units, electrical charge is defined by the force that it exerts on other charges.
Although the CGS units have mostly been supplanted by the MKSA (meter-kilogram-secondampere) or International System of Units (SI) units, the electrostatic units are still in occasional
use in some applications, most notably in certain fields of physics such as in particle physics and
astrophysics.
The main electrostatic units are:
The statcoulomb, called the franklin or the "esu" for electric charge.
http://web.archive.org/web/20070129063539/http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/online/electron/section2/discovery.asp
http://www.juliantrubin.com/bigten/millikanoildrop.html