Mass-to-charge ratio used as its unit in the field of mass spectrometry. Some fields use the charge-to-mass ratio ("Q"/"m") instead, which is the multiplicative inverse of the mass-to-charge ratio. The 2014 CODATA recommended value for an electron is = . When charged particles move in electric and magnetic fields the following two laws apply: where F is the force applied to the ion, "m" is the mass of the particle, a is the acceleration, "Q" is the electric charge, E is the electric field, and v × B is the cross product of the ion's velocity and the magnetic flux density. This
Mass-to-charge ratio a scalar property, meaning that it can be either positive (+) or negative (−). The Coulomb (C) is the SI unit of charge; however, other units can be used, such as expressing charge in terms of the elementary charge (e). The SI unit of the physical quantity "m"/"Q" is kilogram per coulomb. The units and notation above are used when dealing with the physics of mass spectrometry; however, the "m"/"z" notation is used for the independent variable in a mass spectrum. This notation eases data interpretation since it is numerically more related to the unified atomic mass unit. The "m"