XVIII
295
DIMENSIONS OF MAGNETIC POLE
The thesis and antithesis together show that, regarded
purely from the standpoint of calculation, neither system has
any advantage over the other. From the practical point of
view the forms based upon (M) and (M') have the advantage of
being most easily remembered. If we regard magnetism
simply as a phenomenon of electricity in motion, the electro-
static system in the form (C) will appear preferable; for
according to this view it alone renders the physical as well as
the mathematical connections. For my own part I always
feel safest from errors of calculation when I use, according to
v. Helmholtz's advice,¹ none of these apparently consistent
systems, but adhere to what he calls Gauss's system. This
defines the units of electricity and magnetism separately with
the same dimensions [e] = [m] = M'L'T-¹, and introduces factors
with the dimensions whenever electrical and magnetic quantities
occur together.
i˚ Wied. Ann. 17, p. 48, 1882. [Phil. Mag. (5) 14, p. 436, 1882.]