Gauss unit

The unit Gauss in magnetism

Carl Friedrich Gauss was a mathematician from the 19th century. He contributed in 1831 a significant part of the development of the magnetometer. With this Gauss gauge the field strengths of magnets can be determined. The strength of the magnetic field is not called in the unit Gauss, but often in the unit Tesla. However, this is not formally correct, because the definition of the magnetic flux density is basically not the same as that of the magnetic field. They are usually abbreviated in physics by the letter B.

Nevertheless, one can describe the magnetic flux density with the units Tesla and Gauss. This looks like this:

  • 10,000 Gauss ≙ 1 Tesla
  • 1 T ≙ 1000 mT (esla)
  • 0.1 T (esla) ≙ 1 kG (out)

The units of remanence of a permanent magnet also correspond to the units Gauss and Tesla. The remanence describes the strength of a magnet.

Physical principles of the Gauss unit

Together with the physicist Wilhelm Eduard Weber Gauss developed the so-called CGS system. This is a standard unit control - similar to the known SI system. The magnetic flux density and the Gauss unit are composed of the basic natural units of this cgs system. Among other things it uses:

  • as unit of length centimeters (cm).
  • as the time unit second (s).
  • as mass unit grams (g).

Consequently, the Gauss unit (G) is not a basic physical unit. Instead, it gives the magnetic flux density B in the electromagnetic cgs system and in the Gaussian cgs system:

Within Germany, the Gauss unit has not been a legal entity in metrology since 1970. Nevertheless, it continues to be used in the field of astrophysics. In the International System of Units (SI), Tesla is instead the legal unit of magnetic flux density:

Finally, this size can also be calculated from the force of moving charges. This works with the help of this formula:

Consequently, this means: One Tesla equals one Newton per meter and Ampere.


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