In the Gaussian system, the unit of the H-field is the oersted and the unit of the B-field is the gauss. In the SI, the unit ampere per metre (A/m), which is equivalent to newton per weber, is used for the H-field and the unit tesla is used for the B-field.[3]
History
The unit was established by the IEC in the 1930s[4] in honour of Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted. Ørsted discovered the connection between magnetism and electric current when a magnetic field produced by a current-carrying copper bar deflected a magnetised needle during a lecture demonstration.[5]
Definition
Cassette tape label with coercivity (a measure of the external magnetic flux required to magnetize the tape) measured in oersteds
The H-field strength inside a long solenoid wound with 79.58 turns per metre of a wire carrying 1 A is approximately 1 oersted. The preceding statement is exactly correct under the pre-2019 definition of the ampere if the solenoid considered is infinite in length with the current evenly distributed over its surface, and has exactly 1000/4π turns per metre.
The oersted is closely related to the gauss (G), the CGS unit of magnetic flux density. In vacuum, if the magnetizing field strength is 1 Oe, then the magnetic field density is 1 G, whereas in a medium having permeability μr (relative to permeability of vacuum), their relation is
Because oersteds are used to measure magnetizing field strength, they are also related to the magnetomotive force (mmf) of current in a single-winding wire-loop:[11]
Prior to 2019, the definition of the Ampere was constructed so that its size equaled exactly 1/10 biot, the Gaussian cgs unit of current, because they were both defined as magnetic units of current. After the 2019 revision of the SI, the Ampere is no longer defined in this way,[12] and the relationship 1 Bi 10 A is no longer exact. Therefore, post 2019 this relation between A/m and oersted is not exact either.
Stored energy
The stored energy in a magnet, called magnet performance or maximum energy product[13] (often abbreviated BHmax), is typically measured in units of megagauss-oersteds (MG⋅Oe).
↑"Oersted". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
↑"as late as 1936 a subcommittee of the IEC International Electrotechnical Commission proposed the names 'maxwell', 'gauss' and 'oersted' for the cgs electromagnetic units of flux, induction and magnetic field strength, respectively". — John James Roche, The Mathematics of Measurement: A Critical History, The Athlone Press, London, 1998, ISBN0-485-11473-9, page 184 and John James Roche, "B and H, the intensity vectors of magnetism: A new approach to resolving a century-old controversy", American Journal of Physics, vol. 68, no. 5, 2000, doi: 10.1119/1.19459, p. 438; in both cases giving the reference as Claudio Egidi, editor, Giovanni Giorgi and his Contribution to Electrical Metrology: Proceedings of the meeting held in Turin (Italy) on 21 and 22, September 1988, Politecnico di Torino, Turin (IT), 1990, ISBN978-8885259003, pp. 53–56
↑Kaye, G. W. C, & Laby, T. H.: Table of Physical and Chemical Constants, page 14. Longman, 1973.