Centimetre–gram–second System of Units - Pro and Contra

Pro and Contra

While the absence of explicit prefactors in some CGS subsystems simplifies some theoretical calculations, it has the disadvantage that sometimes the units in CGS are hard to define through experiment. Also, lack of unique unit names leads to a great confusion: thus "15 emu" may mean either 15 abvolts, or 15 emu units of electric dipole moment, or 15 emu units of magnetic susceptibility, sometimes (but not always) per gram, or per mole. On the other hand, SI starts with a unit of current, the ampere, that is easier to determine through experiment, but which requires extra multiplicative factors in the electromagnetic equations. With its system of uniquely-named units, the SI also removes any confusion in usage: 1.0 ampere is a fixed value of a specified quantity, and so are 1.0 henry, 1.0 ohm, and 1.0 volt .

A key virtue of the Gaussian CGS system is that electric and magnetic fields have the same units, is replaced by, and the only dimensional constant appearing in the Maxwell equations is, the speed of light. The Heaviside–Lorentz system has these desirable properties as well (with equaling 1), but it is a "rationalized" system (as is SI) in which the charges and fields are defined in such a way that there are many fewer factors of appearing in the formulas, and it is in Heaviside–Lorentz units that the Maxwell equations take their simplest form.

In SI, and other rationalized systems (for example, Heaviside–Lorentz), the unit of current was chosen such that electromagnetic equations concerning charged spheres contain 4π, those concerning coils of current and straight wires contain 2π and those dealing with charged surfaces lack π entirely, which was the most convenient choice for applications in electrical engineering. However, modern hand calculators and personal computers have reduced this "advantage" to nothing. In some fields where formulas concerning spheres are common (for example, in astrophysics), it has been argued that the nonrationalized CGS system can be somewhat more convenient notationally.

In fact, in certain fields, specialized unit systems are used to simplify formulas even further than either SI or CGS, by using some system of natural units. For example, those in particle physics use a system where every quantity is expressed by only one unit, the electron-volt, with lengths, times, and so on. all converted into electron-volts by inserting factors of c and the Planck constant . This unit system is very convenient for calculations in particle physics, but it would be impractical in all other contexts.