The electrostatic system of units is a system of units used to measure electrical quantities of electric charge

Electric charge

Electric charge is a physical property of matter that causes it to experience a force when near other electrically charged matter. Electric charge comes in two types, called positive and negative. Two positively charged substances, or objects, experience a mutual repulsive force, as do two...

, current

Electric current

Electric current is a flow of electric charge through a medium.This charge is typically carried by moving electrons in a conductor such as wire...

, and voltage

Voltage

Voltage, otherwise known as electrical potential difference or electric tension is the difference in electric potential between two points — or the difference in electric potential energy per unit charge between two points...

, within the centimeter gram second

Centimetre gram second system of units

The centimetre–gram–second system is a metric system of physical units based on centimetre as the unit of length, gram as a unit of mass, and second as a unit of time...

 (or "CGS") metric system of units. In electrostatic units, electrical charge is defined via the force it exerts on other charges. Although CGS units have mostly been supplanted by the MKSA or “International System of Units

International System of Units

The International System of Units is the modern form of the metric system and is generally a system of units of measurement devised around seven base units and the convenience of the number ten. The older metric system included several groups of units...

” (SI) units, electrostatic units are still in use in some applications, most notably certain fields of physics such as particle and astro physics.

The main electrostatic units are:

• Statcoulomb
  Statcoulomb
  The statcoulomb or franklin or electrostatic unit of charge is the physical unit for electrical charge used in the centimetre-gram-second system of units and Gaussian units. It is a derived unit given by...
  
   or "esu" for charge
• Statvolt
  Statvolt
  The statvolt is a unit of voltage and electrical potential used in the cgs system of units. The conversion to the SI system isIt is a useful unit for electromagnetism because one statvolt per centimetre is equal in magnitude to one gauss. Thus, for example, an electric field of one statvolt/cm has...
  
   for voltage
• Gauss
  Gauss (unit)
  The gauss, abbreviated as G, is the cgs unit of measurement of a magnetic field B , named after the German mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss. One gauss is defined as one maxwell per square centimeter; it equals 1 tesla...
  
   for magnetic induction

External links

• Article on CGS units in electromagnetism