Daily Archives: July 30, 2008
Flatland, the movie, staring Veronica Mars and President Bartlett
How the heck in the n-dimensional universe did I miss this? I need to get on this, STAT!
I read the book a long time ago, but I remember it being about gender in the Victorian era. And math, of course. Am I totally wrong about this?
Earthquakes, Richter Scale, and Logarithms
Today there was an Earthquake in Southern California. A NYT article said:
The quake, estimated at 5.4 magnitude (reduced from an initial estimate of 5.8), was centered 35 east of downtown Los Angeles in Chino Hills, just south of Pomona in San Bernardino county. It was felt as far east as Las Vegas and as far south as San Diego.
My first reaction, a question: how much of a difference was there in terms of the seismic energy released at the epicenter of the estimated earthquake versus the actual earthquake? How off was the esimate? I know that the Richter Scale is logarithmic, so the answer would be:
The estimate was over 2.5 times off.
But I realized: I know very little about the Richter Scale and how earthquakes are actually measured. How could an initial estimate be so wrong? I’m going to use this post to explain what little I’ve pieced together from the internet.
Jump on below!
