Glossary
AC field
A magnetic field that varies in time, as opposed to a DC field.
Accelerator
Particle accelerators were developed by physicists to study the elementary nature of matter. Nowadays, they are usually immense, highly international installations, with a permanent operational staff "servicing" a user community of scientists. Smaller accelerators are also used commercially, for example in mass spectrometry, proton therapy and semiconductor ion implantation. Even an ordinary CRT can be considered a particle accelerator!
Accuracy
Accuracy is how close a measure conforms to reality. Even if our NMR Teslameter displays 9 digits, we claim 5 ppm (7 digit) accuracy. In common speech, accuracy is often confused with precision – in fact, we may do it ourselves ;-)
Aperture
In magnetism, this refers to the spacing between the poles.
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Magnetic measurement, like any specialty, has its own language. Things are complicated further by the terms specific to certain application areas, such as MRI or accelerators. This glossary provides short and simple definitions for many of these terms. Feel free to contact us if we're missing one of your favourites, or if you don't agree with our definition.