CGS Unit System
The CGS system is based on the fundamental units of length, mass, and time, using centimetre (cm), gram (g), and second (s).
In electromagnetism, CGS includes the ESU, EMU, and Gaussian subsystems, where derived units
(such as statcoulomb, abampere, gauss, and oersted) are defined with different constants.
This page focuses on the three fundamental CGS units and their SI equivalents as a reference.
|
CGS Unit
|
Quantity
|
SI Equivalent
|
| centimetre (cm) |
length |
0.01 metre (m) |
| gram (g) |
mass |
0.001 kilogram (kg) |
| barye (Ba) |
pressure |
0.1 pascal (Pa) |
|
biot (Bi) (= abampere, abA)
|
electric current |
10 amperes (A) |
| calorie (cal) |
heat / energy |
4.184 joules (J) |
| darcy |
permeability |
9.869233×10−13 square metres (m2)
|
| debye (D) |
electric dipole moment |
3.33564×10−30 coulomb·metre (C·m)
|
| dyne (dyn) |
force |
10−5 newton (N)
|
| emu |
magnetic dipole moment |
10−3 A·m2
|
| erg |
work, energy |
10−7 joule (J) |
|
franklin (Fr) (= statcoulomb)
|
electric charge |
3.33564×10−10 coulomb (C)
|
| gal (Gal) |
acceleration |
0.01 m·s−2 |
| gauss (G) |
magnetic flux density |
10−4 tesla (T) |
| gilbert (Gi) |
magnetomotive force |
0.7957747 ampere-turn (At) |
| kayser (K) |
wavenumber |
100 m−1 |
| lambert (Lb) |
luminance |
≈ 3183.0989 cd·m−2 |
| langley |
surface heat flux |
41.84 kJ·m−2 |
| line |
magnetic flux |
10−8 weber (Wb)
(= maxwell)
|
| maxwell (Mx) |
magnetic flux |
10−8 weber (Wb) |
| oersted (Oe) |
magnetic field strength |
79.5774715 A·m−1 |
| phot (ph) |
illuminance |
104 lux (lx) |