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
There is another common misapprehension that the magnitude scale is itself some kind of instrument or apparatus. Visitors will frequently ask to 'see the scale.' Charles Francis Richter apparatuscommonfrequently Change image and share on social
Don't wait for extraordinary circumstance to do good; try to use ordinary situations. Charles Francis Richter circumstanceextraordinarygood Change image and share on social
From here, it becomes an engineering problem; the engineer considers the ground motion that will occur and evaluates the requirements of the proposed structure in the light of the local foundation conditions. Charles Francis Richter conditionconsiderengineer share on social
If one introduces the concept of energy of an earthquake then that is a theoretically derived quantity. Charles Francis Richter conceptderiveearthquake Change image and share on social
Logarithmic plots are a device of the devil. Charles Francis Richter devicedevillogarithmic 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 was lucky because logarithmic plots are a device of the devil. Charles Francis Richter devicedevillogarithmic Change image and 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
I repeatedly have to correct this belief. In a sense, magnitude involves steps of 10 because every increase of one magnitude represents a tenfold amplification of the ground motion. But there is no 'scale of 10' in the sense of an upper limit. Charles Francis Richter amplificationbeliefcorrect share on social