> > On Mon, 16 Jul 2001, James R. Frysinger wrote: > > ... > > homework sets from the Princeton Physics Department that have students > > calculate problems in electrostatic units (esu)! How archaic! > > ... > > Groth and Nice might be specialists in the field of elementary particles, > and prefer to set as many fundamental constants equal to one as possible > with esu and emu being the next best thing in their minds. My uninformed > speculation, of course. > That's exactly the case Gene. My old grad text J.D. Jackson "Classical Electrodynamics", which I understand is still pretty much a standard text, has a section on units in the back. They use esu units because it allows a lot of recurring constants to be set equal to one, thus simplifying theoretical manipulation. It's purely a tool for equation jockeys, ifp isn't involved in any way. Nat
