Re: BOUSSOLE ? BIO ?

["Polvani, Donald G." <donald_g_polvani@MD.NORTHGRUM.COM>]

The oersted is the old Gaussian unit for H.  It was adopted in 1934 by the
International Union of Pure and Applied Physics who took the view that B and
H in free space are fundamentally different even if their ratio mu0 is taken
as unity.  B was measured in gauss in the same units (from W.S. Scott, "The
Physics of Electricity and Magnetism", second edition, 1977, p386)

Don Polvani
Anne Arundel Community College
Arnold, MD

-----Original Message-----
From: Ludwik Kowalski [mailto:kowalskiL@MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 4:15 PM
To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
Subject: BOUSSOLE ? BIO ?


Another hint from phys-L after posting a message?

The French word for compass is BOUSSOLE. Perhaps this
has something to do with the symbol B. Or maybe B was
chosen to honor Bio, a French scientist.

If my memory can be trusted, there used to be units of
physical quantities called "bio" and "oersted." Which of
them was for B and which was for H?
Ludwik Kowalski

frank cange wrote:

> ludwik:
>     do you have any idea where the notion of calling the magnetic field,
> B-field came from, or originates from?  i have always wondered why
> they didn't call it the M field for the word magnetic.thanks!
> frank cange