Electricity converters
Electric Conductivity Converter
Convert conductivity units: S/m, mS/cm, µS/cm and resistivity by reciprocal.
Result
0.05 S/m
500 µS/cm = 0.05 S/m
All units for this value
| Unit | Symbol | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Siemens per meter | S/m | 0.05 |
| Kilosiemens per meter | kS/m | 0.00005 |
| Millisiemens per meter | mS/m | 50 |
| Microsiemens per meter | µS/m | 50000 |
| Siemens per centimeter | S/cm | 0.0005 |
| Millisiemens per centimeter | mS/cm | 0.5 |
| Microsiemens per centimeter | µS/cm | 500 |
| Mho per meter | ℧/m | 0.05 |
| Abmho per centimeter | ab℧/cm | 5.00000e-13 |
| Statmho per centimeter | stat℧/cm | 449378000 |
| Ohm meter (resistivity) | Ω·m | 20 |
| Ohm centimeter (resistivity) | Ω·cm | 2000 |
About this calculator
Electric conductivity measures how readily a material carries current for a given size, the reciprocal of resistivity, and is widely used to describe metals, solutions, and semiconductors. This converter switches between the SI siemens-per-meter unit and its metric multiples, the legacy mho-per-meter unit, CGS units like abmho-per-centimeter, and reciprocal resistivity units such as ohm-meter and ohm-centimeter.
How it works in plain English
The converter anchors every conductivity unit to siemens per meter and rescales your entered value through that shared base for any pair of units you choose. Metric prefixes such as kilo, milli, and micro apply straightforward powers of ten, while siemens per centimeter and millisiemens per centimeter rescale the length portion of the unit from meters to centimeters. Mho per meter is numerically identical to siemens per meter, and abmho per centimeter and statmho per centimeter come from the CGS electromagnetic and electrostatic systems, carrying very large or very small conversion factors as a result.
Ohm-meter and ohm-centimeter, the standard resistivity units, are also included in this converter's list because conductivity and resistivity are reciprocals: multiplying a material's conductivity in siemens per meter by its resistivity in ohm-meter always gives exactly 1. Selecting ohm-meter or ohm-centimeter as the target unit tells the converter to invert the entered conductivity value instead of applying a plain scaling factor. Because a reciprocal of zero is undefined, entering a conductivity of exactly zero leaves the resistivity entries in the results table showing a dash.
Pick your from and to units, type a value, and the converted conductivity appears right away, with a table listing that same figure across every supported unit at once. A precision control adjusts the number of decimal places shown, and a swap button flips the conversion direction instantly.
The formula
- value_in_target = value_in_source × (source factor to S/m) ÷ (target factor to S/m)
- 1 S/cm = 100 S/m
- 1 ab℧/cm = 1 × 10¹¹ S/m
- resistivity (Ω·m) = 1 ÷ conductivity (S/m)
Worked example
Suppose a water-quality report lists a sample's conductivity as 500 microsiemens per centimeter, a common way of reporting drinking-water salinity, and a technician wants that expressed in siemens per meter for a scientific calculation. Converting through the shared base: 500 µS/cm × 1e-4 = 0.05 S/m.
Entering 500 into the microsiemens-per-centimeter field with siemens per meter selected as the target shows 0.05 immediately. As a check, multiplying 0.05 S/m by the original 1e-4 scaling factor's reciprocal, 10,000, returns 500, confirming the microsiemens-per-centimeter reading was converted correctly. The results table also lists the equivalent resistivity as 20 ohm-meters, obtained by inverting that 0.05 S/m figure, and scrolling through that same all-units table shows the value restated in millisiemens per meter and abmho per centimeter as well, all generated from the single value that was typed in.
Typical electrical conductivity of common materials and solutions
| Material or solution | Conductivity (S/m) |
|---|---|
| Silver | 6.30 × 10⁷ |
| Copper | 5.96 × 10⁷ |
| Aluminium | 3.50 × 10⁷ |
| Seawater | ≈4-5 |
| Drinking water (typical tap water) | ≈0.005-0.05 |
| Deionised water | ≈5.5 × 10⁻⁶ |
| Dry soil | ≈0.001-0.01 |
Standard materials and water-quality reference values
Frequently asked questions
Why does this converter include resistivity units like ohm-meter?
Conductivity and resistivity are reciprocals of the same underlying material property, so it's convenient to convert directly between them. Choosing ohm-meter or ohm-centimeter as the target unit tells the converter to divide 1 by the entered conductivity value rather than apply a simple multiplication factor.
Why does entering a conductivity of zero leave the resistivity entries blank?
A material with zero conductivity would need infinite resistivity to explain why no current flows at all, and infinity has no finite numeric value to display. Instead of showing an error, the converter shows a dash in the resistivity entries whenever the entered conductivity is exactly zero.
Why is water's conductivity reported in microsiemens per centimeter?
Water-testing equipment and standards historically report conductivity in microsiemens or millisiemens per centimeter because the values for natural and drinking water fall in a convenient numeric range using that unit. This converter lets those readings be translated into the SI siemens-per-meter unit used in most scientific calculations.
Is mho per meter the same as siemens per meter?
Yes. Mho was the original name for the unit before siemens was formally adopted, and the two terms describe exactly the same quantity with no conversion factor between them. This converter includes mho per meter for compatibility with older textbooks and instrumentation that still use that terminology.
How does conductivity differ from conductance?
Conductivity is a property of a material alone, independent of the shape or size of any particular sample, while conductance describes a specific component or path and depends on its length and cross-sectional area as well as the material. This converter's separate conductance tool handles siemens-based units for individual components.
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