Charles Francis Richter Quotes

• 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

  Topics in Truth

  Tags in Constant, Except

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Happy, Small

• This is very similar to astronomy where different magnitudes are assigned to the brightness of an astronomical object, depending on the range of wavelengths being measured.

  Charles Francis Richter

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Different, Measured, Object

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Kind, Another, Ask

• Refining is inevitable in science when you have made measurements of a phenomenon for a long period of time.

  Charles Francis Richter

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Science, Refining

• Nothing is less predictable than the development of an active scientific field.

  Charles Francis Richter

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Nothing, Scientific

• My amateur interest in astronomy brought out the term ‘magnitude,’ which is used for the brightness of a star.

  Charles Francis Richter

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Used, Interest

• I was lucky because logarithmic plots are a device of the devil.

  Charles Francis Richter

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Devil, Lucky, Device

• Intensity like signal strength will generally fall off with distance from the source, although it also depends on the local conditions and the pathway from the source to the point.

  Charles Francis Richter

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Strength, Distance, Point

• Incidentally, the usual designation of the magnitude scale to my name does less than justice to the great part that Dr. Gutenberg played in extending the scale to apply to earthquakes in all parts of the world.

  Charles Francis Richter

  Topics in Justice

  Tags in Name, Less

• In every area of the world where there is earthquake risk, there are still many buildings of this type; it is very frustrating to try to get rid of them.

  Charles Francis Richter

  Topics in Risk

  Tags in Try, Frustrating

• If the assumptions used in calculating energy are changed, then this seriously affects the final result, even though the same body of data might be used.

  Charles Francis Richter

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Energy, Used

• If one introduces the concept of energy of an earthquake then that is a theoretically derived quantity.

  Charles Francis Richter

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Energy, Earthquake, Concept

• I’m glad to see the press now referring to the open-ended Richter scale.

  Charles Francis Richter

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Referring, Glad

• I was lucky because logarithmic plots are a device of the devil.

  Charles Francis Richter

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Devil, Lucky, Device

• I usually point out that most loss of life and property has been due to the collapse of antiquated and unsafe structures, mostly of brick and other masonry.

  Charles Francis Richter

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Property, Point

• I suggested that we might compare earthquakes in terms of the measured amplitudes recorded at these stations, with an appropriate correction for distance.

  Charles Francis Richter

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Might, Distance

• 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

  Topics in Belief

  Tags in Sense, Ground

• 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

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Problem, Light, Foundation

• For example, some stars put out large amounts of energy in the infrared part of the spectrum, so that this can produce a different relative magnitude rating than using light energy from the middle of the spectrum.

  Charles Francis Richter

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Different, Example

Charles Francis Richter (23)

Birth:	26th April, 1900
Death:	30th September, 1985
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Physicist

About

Charles Francis Richter was an American seismologist and physicist. Richter is most famous as the creator of the Richter magnitude scale which, until the development of the moment magnitude scale in 1979, quantified the size of earthquakes. Inspired by Kiyoo Wadati's 1928 paper on shallow and deep earthquakes, Richter first used the scale in 1935 after developing it in collaboration with Beno Gutenberg; both worked at California Institute of Technology. The quote "logarithmic plots are a device of the devil" is attributed to Richter.

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