What emerged, of course, was that the magnitude scale presupposed that all earthquakes were alike except for a constant scaling factor. And this proved to be closer to the truth than we expected. Charles Francis Richter alikecloseconstant Change image and share on social
Incidentally, the usual designation of the magnitude scale to my name does less than justice to the great part that Dr. Gutenberg played in extending the scale to apply to earthquakes in all parts of the world. Charles Francis Richter applydesignationearthquake share on social
We would have been happy if we could have assigned just three categories, large, medium, and small; the point is, we wanted to avoid personal judgments. It actually turned out to be quite a finely tuned scale. Charles Francis Richter assignavoidcategory share on social
Nothing is less predictable than the development of an active scientific field. Charles Francis Richter activedevelopmentfield Change image and share on social
As seismologists gained more experience from earthquake records, it became obvious that the problem could not be reduced to a single peak acceleration. In fact, a full frequency of vibrations occurs. Charles Francis Richter accelerationearthquakeexperience Change image and share on social
I usually point out that most loss of life and property has been due to the collapse of antiquated and unsafe structures, mostly of brick and other masonry. Charles Francis Richter antiquatebrickcollapse Change image and share on social
For example, some stars put out large amounts of energy in the infrared part of the spectrum, so that this can produce a different relative magnitude rating than using light energy from the middle of the spectrum. Charles Francis Richter amountenergyinfrared share on social
I was lucky because logarithmic plots are a device of the devil. Charles Francis Richter devicedevillogarithmic Change image and share on social
By moving them vertically, a representative mean curve could be formed, and individual events were then characterized by individual logarithmic differences from the standard curve. Charles Francis Richter characterizecurvedifference Change image and share on social
This is very similar to astronomy where different magnitudes are assigned to the brightness of an astronomical object, depending on the range of wavelengths being measured. Charles Francis Richter assignastronomicalastronomy Change image and share on social
