Magnitude Scales
The first attempt to qualitatively define a single, absolute value to describe the size of earthquakes was the magnitude scale (the name being inspired by scales used to represent the brightness of stars).
Read more about this topic: Seismic Scales
Famous quotes containing the words magnitude and/or scales:
“Constancy has nothing virtuous in itself, independently of the pleasure it confers, and partakes of the temporizing spirit of vice in proportion as it endures tamely moral defects of magnitude in the object of its indiscreet choice.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
“For these have governed in our lives,
And see how men have warred.
The Cross, the Crown, the Scales may all
As well have been the Sword.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)