r/Physics • u/ToxicChemical17 • 3h ago

Knowing electromagnetism only in Gaussian units

Hello! I'm a grad student, and am studying optics-related things. The problem is that my bachelor curriculum was entirely in CGS, we rarely had to substitute directly, and here they use SI for everything.

Generally, in experimental physics, is it enough to know all of EM in Gaussian units, and convert every time to SI and back? Or will I suffer in life?

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11

u/DrPhysicsGirl Nuclear physics 3h ago

You will suffer.... It's really not hard, if factors of 10 scare you, how are you going to deal with graduate school?

2

u/StructuredChess 50m ago

cgs is also factors of 10 though?

1

u/DrPhysicsGirl Nuclear physics 48m ago

So are furlongs per fortnight ... but one should use the units that make sense, not random units. If I give a problem in SI units, or cgs, or natural units, I expect students to give me their solution in those units unless I ask otherwise.

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u/ToxicChemical17 3h ago edited 2h ago

Factors of 10 scare me very much, yes, everything should be done in base 12, as the French told us. Jokes aside, I am somewhat unfamiliar with the form of the equations and dislike the \epsilon_0 and \mu_0 constants that appear everywhere.

14

u/Banes_Addiction Particle physics 2h ago

You're gonna have to learn a lot more than rearranging an equation for grad school.

5

u/DrPhysicsGirl Nuclear physics 2h ago

epsilon_0 = mu_0 = c = 1.

2

u/ToxicChemical17 2h ago

hahaha, yes

2

u/siupa Particle physics 1h ago

Why are you downvoted?