Magnetic field 'magnetic field' is used to describe as well as or in place of . There are many alternative names for both (see sidebar). In SI units, is measured in teslas (symbol: T) and correspondingly (magnetic flux) is measured in webers (symbol: Wb) so that a flux density of 1 Wb/m is 1 tesla. The SI unit of tesla is equivalent to (newton·second)/(coulomb·metre). In Gaussian-cgs units, is measured in gauss (symbol: G). (The conversion is 1 T = 10000 G.) One nanotesla is equivalent to 1 gamma (symbol: γ). The -field is measured in amperes per metre (A/m) in SI units,
Current density is the charge density (SI unit: coulombs per cubic metre), in which "n"(r, "t") is the number of particles per unit volume ("number density") (SI unit: m), "q" is the charge of the individual particles with density "n" (SI unit: coulombs). A common approximation to the current density assumes the current simply is proportional to the electric field, as expressed by: where E is the electric field and "σ" is the electrical conductivity. Conductivity "σ" is the reciprocal (inverse) of electrical resistivity and has the SI units of siemens per metre (S⋅m), and E has the SI units of newtons