Tesla (unit) - Conversions

Conversions

1 tesla is equivalent to:

10,000 (or 104) G (gauss), used in the CGS system. Thus, 10 G = 1 mT (millitesla), and 1 G = 10−4 T.

1,000,000,000 (or 109) γ (gammas), used in geophysics. Thus, 1 γ = 1 nT (nanotesla)

42.6 MHz of the 1H nucleus frequency, in NMR. Thus a 1 GHz NMR magnetic field is 23.5 teslas.

For those concerned with low-frequency electromagnetic radiation in the home, the following conversions are needed most:

1000 nT (nanoteslas) = 1 µT (microtesla) = 10 mG (milligauss)

1,000,000 µT = 1 T

Because the tesla is so large in regards to everyday usage, common engineering practice is to report the strength of magnets in gauss. Scientists are split on this issue, with some insisting on proper SI units at all times and some allowing for more practical labeling (though using mT or µT is not less practical than G or mG, and conforms with SI). In publications where fields are reported in teslas, very often they are incorrectly reported with the unit capitalized as "Teslas." However, as with gauss and other units, even those derived from names (watt, joule) the unit is lower-case when written out, but capitalized as a symbol: tesla, T.

For the relation to the units of the magnetizing field (amperes per meter or oersteds) see the article on permeability.