The statohm is the unit of

electrical resistance The electrical resistance of an object is a measure of its opposition to the flow of electric current. Its reciprocal quantity is , measuring the ease with which an electric current passes. Electrical resistance shares some conceptual parallel ...

in the electrostatic system of units which was part of the CGS system of units based upon the centimetre, gram and second. The static units in that system were related to the equivalent electromagnetic units by a factor of the

speed of light The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted , is a universal physical constant that is important in many areas of physics. The speed of light is exactly equal to ). According to the special theory of relativity, is the upper limit for ...

. Those units were known as absolute units and so the equivalent of the statohm was the abohm and their proportions were: 1 statohm = c² abohms = 8.987551787x10²⁰ abohms where c is the speed of light in centimetres per second. These units are not common now. The

SI unit The International System of Units, known by the international abbreviation SI in all languages and sometimes pleonastically as the SI system, is the modern form of the metric system and the world's most widely used system of measurement. E ...

of resistance is the

ohm Ohm (symbol Ω) is a unit of electrical resistance named after Georg Ohm. Ohm or OHM may also refer to: People * Georg Ohm (1789–1854), German physicist and namesake of the term ''ohm'' * Germán Ohm (born 1936), Mexican boxer * Jörg Ohm (bor ...

. The statohm is nearly a

trillion ''Trillion'' is a number with two distinct definitions: *1,000,000,000,000, i.e. one million million, or (ten to the twelfth power), as defined on the short scale. This is now the meaning in both American and British English. * 1,000,000,000,00 ...

times larger than the ohm and is the largest unit of resistance ever used in any measurement system. The statohm as a practical unit is as unusably large as the abohm is unusably small. 1 statohm = 8.987551787x10¹¹ ohms

References

{{CGS units Units of electrical resistance Centimetre–gram–second system of units