Electricity converters
Electric Field Strength Converter
Convert electric field strength units: V/m, kV/cm, V/mil and statvolt/cm.
Result
100000 V/m
1 kV/cm = 100000 V/m
All units for this value
| Unit | Symbol | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Volt per meter | V/m | 100000 |
| Kilovolt per meter | kV/m | 100 |
| Megavolt per meter | MV/m | 0.1 |
| Volt per centimeter | V/cm | 1000 |
| Kilovolt per centimeter | kV/cm | 1 |
| Millivolt per meter | mV/m | 100000000 |
| Microvolt per meter | µV/m | 100000000000 |
| Newton per coulomb | N/C | 100000 |
| Volt per inch | V/in | 2540 |
| Volt per mil | V/mil | 2.54 |
| Statvolt per centimeter | statV/cm | 3.33564 |
| Abvolt per centimeter | abV/cm | 100000000000 |
About this calculator
Electric field strength measures the force per unit charge at a point in space, commonly used to describe insulation stress, capacitor spacing, and dielectric breakdown limits. This converter switches between the SI unit volt per meter, the US volt per mil used in insulation ratings, and CGS units like statvolt per centimeter.
How it works in plain English
Electric field strength combines a voltage unit with a length unit, so the converter anchors every entry to volt per meter before rescaling to your chosen units. Metric multiples such as kilovolt per meter and megavolt per meter follow standard factor-of-1000 steps, while volt per centimeter and kilovolt per centimeter scale by the centimeter-to-meter ratio of 100.
The newton per coulomb unit is numerically identical to volt per meter because both express the same physical quantity, force per unit charge, through equivalent definitions, so the converter treats them as the same base unit. Volt per mil, common on insulation and dielectric-strength datasheets, uses the mil (0.001 inch, or 2.54e-5 meters), giving a large numeric factor since a mil is such a small length. The CGS statvolt per centimeter uses the statvolt (about 299.792458 volts) divided by a centimeter.
Select the from and to units, enter your value, and the converted field strength appears immediately, backed by a table listing that same value across every supported unit. A precision control adjusts the number of decimal places shown, and a swap button reverses the two selected units in one click.
The formula
- value_in_target = value_in_source × (source factor to V/m) ÷ (target factor to V/m)
- 1 V/mil = 1 ÷ 2.54e-5 = 39,370.08 V/m
- 1 statV/cm = 299.792458 × 100 = 29,979.2458 V/m
- 1 kV/cm = 100,000 V/m
Worked example
Suppose an insulation datasheet rates a material's dielectric strength as 500 V/mil, and an engineer wants that figure in kV/cm to compare against a metric standard. Multiplying by the conversion factor: 500 × 39,370.08 = 19,685,039 V/m, which is 196.85 kV/cm.
Entering 500 into the V/mil field with kV/cm selected as the target returns about 196.85 kV/cm immediately. The full unit table also shows the same value as roughly 19.685 MV/m and 656.6 statV/cm, all calculated from that single entered figure without additional lookups. Dividing the original 19,685,039 V/m figure by 100 also gives 196,850.39 V/cm, matching the kV/cm reading once the decimal point is shifted three places, which offers a quick way to double-check the conversion by hand.
Electric field strength unit factors
| Unit | Value in V/m |
|---|---|
| 1 volt per meter (V/m) | 1 |
| 1 volt per centimeter (V/cm) | 100 |
| 1 kilovolt per centimeter (kV/cm) | 100,000 |
| 1 volt per inch (V/in) | 39.3701 |
| 1 volt per mil (V/mil) | 39,370.08 |
| 1 statvolt per centimeter (statV/cm) | 29,979.2458 |
Standard unit definitions
Frequently asked questions
Why are volt per meter and newton per coulomb the same unit here?
Electric field strength can be defined either as voltage change per unit distance or as force per unit charge, and both definitions describe the same physical quantity with equivalent units once the underlying constants are worked through. This converter treats V/m and N/C as interchangeable because they are numerically identical for any given field.
Why is volt per mil used for insulation ratings?
Insulation and cable manufacturers in the US commonly measure material thickness in mils (thousandths of an inch), so expressing dielectric breakdown strength directly in volts per mil avoids converting thickness units before checking a rating. This converter lets those figures be compared directly against metric V/m or kV/cm specifications.
What is the statvolt per centimeter unit based on?
It's a CGS electrostatic unit built from the statvolt, which equals about 299.792458 volts, divided by a centimeter of distance. It appears mainly in older physics literature and some plasma or electrostatics references rather than modern engineering datasheets, and is included here for completeness when working with legacy sources.
Can I convert a V/cm reading directly to V/mil?
Yes. Choose volt per centimeter as the from unit and volt per mil as the target, enter your figure, and the converter routes the calculation through the shared V/m anchor automatically, applying both the centimeter and mil length factors without requiring any manual unit arithmetic.
Does a higher electric field strength always mean higher voltage?
Not necessarily, since field strength depends on both voltage and the distance over which it's applied. A small voltage across a very short distance can produce a higher field strength than a large voltage spread across a longer distance, which is why insulation thickness matters as much as applied voltage in breakdown calculations.
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