debye

Etymology
Named after Dutch-American physicist and physical chemist.

Noun

 * 1)  The CGS unit of electric dipole moment, defined as 1 D = 10-18 statcoulomb-centimetre and computable from the SI unit coulomb-metre by multiplying by the factor 3.33564 × 10-30.

Usage notes

 * Historically defined as the electric dipole moment resulting from two equal but opposite charges of absolute magnitude $$10^{-10}$$ statcoulomb separated by 1 ångström.
 * It is used much more frequently than the SI unit, being suited for measurements at the molecular scale relevant to chemistry and atomic physics. In contrast, the SI unit is inconveniently large.

Etymology
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