Start by finding the intensity of noise for the hot water pump. You can’t easily compare the two noises using the formula, but you can compare them to P 0. The dishwasher noise is how many times more intense than the hot water pump noise? One dishwasher, however, has a noise rating of 62 decibels. One hot water pump has a noise rating of 50 decibels. Where P is the power or intensity of the sound and P 0 is the weakest sound that the human ear can hear. The formula looks similar to the Richter scale: Sound is measured in a logarithmic scale using a unit called a decibel. One extra point on the Richter scale can mean a lot more shaking! A calculator gives a value of 3.5932…or 3.6, when rounded to the nearest tenth. What if it were 10 times that, or 3,920 times normal? To find the measurement of that size earthquake on the Richter scale, you find log 3920. In that example, the wave amplitude of the earthquake was 392 times normal. Let’s look back at the example just shown. This means that an earthquake that measures 3.6 on the Richter scale has 10 times the amplitude of one that measures 2.6. The magnitude of this earthquake is 2.6 on the Richter scale.Ī difference of 1 point on the Richter scale equates to a 10-fold difference in the amplitude of the earthquake (which is related to the wave strength). Use a calculator to evaluate the logarithm. Since A is 392 times as large as A 0, A = 392A 0. What is the magnitude of this earthquake using the Richter scale, to the nearest tenth? (The highest rating ever recorded for an earthquake is 9.5 during the 1960 Valdivia earthquake in Chile.)Īn earthquake is measured with a wave amplitude 392 times as great as A 0. Earthquakes with a Richter rating of between 5 and 7.9 are much more severe, and any quake above an 8 is likely to cause massive damage. Any earthquakes registering below a 5 are fairly minor they may shake the ground a bit, but are seldom strong enough to cause much damage. The intensity of an earthquake will typically measure between 2 and 10 on the Richter scale. Instruments called seismographs detect movement in the earth the smallest movement that can be detected shows on a seismograph as a wave with amplitude A 0.Ī – the measure of the amplitude of the earthquake waveĪ 0 – the amplitude of the smallest detectable wave (or standard wave)įrom this you can find R, the Richter scale measure of the magnitude of the earthquake using the formula: The magnitude of an earthquake is related to how much energy is released by the quake. Let’s look at the Richter scale, a logarithmic function that is used to measure the magnitude of earthquakes. Some examples of this include sound (decibel measures), earthquakes (Richter scale), the brightness of stars, and chemistry (pH balance, a measure of acidity and alkalinity). Much of the power of logarithms is their usefulness in solving exponential equations.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |