Example Scales
On most logarithmic scales, small values (or ratios) of the underlying quantity correspond to negative values of the logarithmic measure. Well-known examples of such scales are:
- Richter magnitude scale and moment magnitude scale (MMS) for strength of earthquakes and movement in the earth.
- ban and deciban, for information or weight of evidence;
- bel and decibel and neper for acoustic power (loudness) and electric power;
- cent, minor second, major second, and octave for the relative pitch of notes in music;
- logit for odds in statistics;
- Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale;
- Logarithmic timeline;
- counting f-stops for ratios of photographic exposure;
- rating low probabilities by the number of 'nines' in the decimal expansion of the probability of their not happening: for example, a system which will fail with a probability of 10−5 is 99.999% reliable: "five nines".
- Entropy in thermodynamics.
- Information in information theory.
- Particle Size Distribution curves of soil
Some logarithmic scales were designed such that large values (or ratios) of the underlying quantity correspond to small values of the logarithmic measure. Examples of such scales are:
- pH for acidity and alkalinity;
- stellar magnitude scale for brightness of stars;
- Krumbein scale for particle size in geology.
- Absorbance of light by transparent samples.
Read more about this topic: Logarithmic Scale
Famous quotes containing the word scales:
“In what camera do you taste
Poison, in what darkness set
Glittering scales and point
The tipping tongue?”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“It cannot but affect our philosophy favorably to be reminded of these shoals of migratory fishes, of salmon, shad, alewives, marsh-bankers, and others, which penetrate up the innumerable rivers of our coast in the spring, even to the interior lakes, their scales gleaming in the sun; and again, of the fry which in still greater numbers wend their way downward to the sea.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)