The Richter Scale

Christian Dunn
August 8th, 2006
The Richter scale
(As written by Christian Dunn compiled from information from 9th grade
science class instructed by Mr. J. Evans and basic information about
logarithms.)
The Richter scale is based on logarithms (which are exponents), and
the logarithm that is used to compare one earthquake’s energy to
another is the factor which is required that, when multiplied with
another factor, the score on the Richter scale of the benchmark
earthquake, results in the product of the score on the Richter scale of
the other earthquake. The amount of energy that the comparison
earthquake releases is equal to the benchmark earthquake raised or
lowered to the power expressed in the logarithm found from the
comparison factor. This means that:

• The factor of energy released compared between 2 magnitudes

on the Richter scale is 1000x.
• The factor of energy released compared between 1 magnitude
on the Richter scale is about 31.6228x, or the square root of
1000, which is equal to 10000.5. The number 1000 is lowered to
the power of the reciprocal of how the number 2 is compared to
one, that is, 2/1.
• The factor of energy released compared between 0.2
magnitudes on the Richter scale is about 2x. The number 0.2 is
1/10 of the number 2, and therefore the number 1000 is lowered
to the power of 0.1, which results with about the number 1.995,
which is about equal to the number 2. That is, 10000.1 is about
equal to 2.
• The factor of energy released compared between 0.1
magnitudes on the Richter scale is about equal to 1.41, or about
the square root of 2, which is also about equal to 10000.05, for
more precise calculation.

Smaller Larger Difference Theoretical (Left column) /

Earthquake Earthquake (Richter scale Approximate (Right column) Factor of
Magnitude Magnitude magnitude) Difference with the two earthquakes.
(Richter scale (Richter scale
magnitude) magnitude)
5.0 5.1 0.1 10000.05 1.413
(2*0.05) [sqrt(2)]
5.0 5.2 0.2 10000.1 1.995 [2]
 The Richter Scale
Christian Dunn
August 8th, 2006
(2*0.10)
5.0 6.0 1.0 (2*0.5) 10000.5 31.6228 [32]
[sqrt(1000)]
5.0 7.0 2.0 (2*1.0) 10001 1000

The factor of difference between the number 2 and the difference

between the two magnitudes becomes the logarithm of 1000 to
determine the factor of difference between the energy released
between two such earthquakes.