196 Units in electromagnetism

Units in magnetism

Table A.1: Units in the SI system and the cgs system. The abbreviations are m=metre, g=gramme,
N=Newton, J=Joule, T=Tesla, G=Gauss, A=Amp, Oe=Oersted, Wb=Weber, Mx=Maxwell. The term
emu is short for electromagnetic unit and is not a unit in the conventional sense. It is sometimes used as
a magnetic moment (1 emu = 1 erg G1 ) and sometimes takes the dimensions of volume (1 emu = 1 cm3 ).

Quantity
Length

symbol
x

102

SI unit
m

=1

cgs unit
cm

Mass

103

kg

=1

Force

105

=1

dyne

10

=1

erg

10

=1

Magnetic field strength

10 /4

Am

=1

Oe

Magnetic moment

103

J T1
or A m2

=1

erg G1
or emu

Magnetization
(= moment per volume)

103

A m1 or
J T1 m3

=1

Oe or
emu cm3

Magnetic susceptibility

=1

emu cm3 or
emu cm3 Oe1

Molar susceptibility

4 106

m3 mol1

=1

emu mol1 or
emu mol1 Oe1

Mass susceptibility

4 103

m3 kg1

=1

emu g1 or
emu g1 Oe1

Magnetic flux

Tm2
or Wb

=1

G cm2
or Mx

Demagnetization factor

Energy
Magnetic induction

108

0<N<1

0 < N < 4

Though not an SI unit, the Bohr magneton B = 9.274 1024 J T1 is a useful

measure of magnetic moment since it corresponds to the magnetic moment of a 1s
electron in hydrogen. For a paramagnet, the molar susceptibility m is given by
Curies law which is in SI units
m =

0 NA 2eff 2B

(A.1)

3kB T

where NA is Avogadros number. Hence m T is independent of temperature and this

can be related to the effective
moment. Hence by rearranging equation A.1, one has
eff = [3kB /0 NA 2B ]1/2 m T , so that
eff = 797.8

eff = 2.827

SI
m T 800
cgs
m T

SI
mT

(SI)

(A.2)

8cgs
m T

(cgs)

(A.3)

where eff is measured in Bohr magnetons per formula unit, SI

m is measured in
1 . These numerical relationships can
m3 mol1 , and cgs
m is measured in emu mol
be useful for extracting effective moments from graphs of m T against T .
Adapted and updated from part of Appendix A of Magnetism in Condensed Matter, by Stephen Blundell,
c
Oxford University Press 2001. S
J Blundell 2005.