The tesla (symbol T) is the SI derived unit of magnetic flux density (or magnetic inductivity ). At the Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures (CGPM) in Paris in 1960, the unit was named in honor of the Serbian-American inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla who made several important contributions to the field of electromagnetism.

1 T = 1 V · s · m ^-2 = 1 kg · s ^-2 · A ^-1 = 1 N · A ^-1 m ^-1 = 1 Wb · m ^-2

Examples

• In outer space the magnetic flux density is between 10^-10 T and 10^-8 T,
• in the Earth's magnetic field at latitude of 50° is 2 · 10^-5 T and on the equator at a latitude of 0° is 3.1 · 10^-5 T,
• in the magnetic field of a huge horseshoe magnet 0.001 T,
• in medical magnetic resonance imaging up to 4 T,
• in a sunspot 10 T,
• strongest continuous magnetic field yet produced in a laboratory (Florida State University's National High Magnetic Field Laboratory [1] in Tallahassee, USA), 45 T [2],
• strongest (pulsed) magnetic field yet obtained non-destructively in a laboratory (Koichi Kindo at Osaka University [3]), 80 T,
• strongest (pulsed) magnetic field ever obtained (with explosives) in a laboratory (Sarov, Russia), 2800 T,
• on a neutron star 10⁶ T to 10⁸ T,
• on a magnetar, 10⁸ to 10¹¹ T,
• maximum theoretical field strength for a neutron star, and therefore for any known phenomenon, 10¹³ T.

Geophysics uses a unit of 1 γ = 10 ^-9 T.

The CGS unit is the gauss = 10^-4 T.

SI units