magnetic field strength

magnetic field strength, the part of the magnetic field in a material that arises from an external current and is not intrinsic to the material itself. It is expressed as the vector H and is measured in units of amperes per metre. The definition of H is H = B/μ − M, where B is the magnetic flux density, a measure of the actual magnetic field within a material considered as a concentration of magnetic field lines, or flux, per unit cross-sectional area; μ is the magnetic permeability; and M is the magnetization. The magnetic field H might be thought of as the magnetic field produced by the flow of current in wires and the magnetic field B as the total magnetic field including also the contribution M made by the magnetic properties of the materials in the field. When a current flows in a wire wrapped on a soft-iron cylinder, the magnetizing field H is quite weak, but the actual average magnetic field (B) within the iron may be thousands of times stronger because B is greatly enhanced by the alignment of the iron’s myriad tiny natural atomic magnets in the direction of the field.