# Would a magnetic charge have the same strength as a electric charge?

1. Apr 3, 2013

### Thesnake22

If magnetic charges existed, would the strength of the field be the same as a electric charge? Would you be able to plug it in to the equation of coulomb's law? If so, what would the constant be? The same?

2. Apr 3, 2013

### Vodkacannon

Well if they don't exist, then who's to say that they would have the same strength as the E.M.F.?

3. Apr 4, 2013

### mickybob

You would need to use the permeability of free space rather than the permittivity, but otherwise yes.

4. Apr 4, 2013

### vanhees71

Using quantum theory, Dirac has shown that the existence of a magnetic monopole implies the quantization of electrical charges. This would be great, because there is no explanation for a quantization of charges from any fundamental principle within the standard model of elementary particles yet (despite the fact that the charge pattern is restricted by the demand of an anomaly free chiral gauge group for the electroweak sector). Dirac's analysis shows that the strength of the magnetic monopole would be given by the then quantized electric charge of elementary particles. This rule reads (in Gaussian units)
$$e g_n =\frac{n}{2} \hbar c,$$
where $e$ is the elementary electric charge and $g_n$ possible values for the magnetic charge with $n \in \mathbb{Z}$.