gauss

Carl Friedrich Gauß in 1828, aged 50 years old The gauss (symbol: G, sometimes Gs) is a unit of measurement of magnetic flux density, B (also known as magnetic induction or magnetic field). The unit is part of the Gaussian system of units, which inherited it from the older centimetre–gram–second electromagnetic units (CGS-EMU) system. It was named after the German mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1936. One gauss is defined as one maxwell per square centimetre.

As the centimetre–gram–second system of units (cgs system) has been superseded by the International System of Units (SI), the use of the gauss has been deprecated by the standards bodies, but is still regularly used in various subfields of science, and preferred in astrophysics. The SI unit for magnetic flux density is the tesla (symbol T), which corresponds to 10,000gauss.