Im wondering for this question if I'm right and going toward the right direction.
Last week there was an earthquake that measured as a magnitude of 3.2 on the Richter scale. Today you hear on the radio that there was a second earthquake that was 27 times more intense than the first. What was the magnitude of the second earthquake on the Richter scale?
27(3.2)
=86.4
I feel I'm doing this wrong and theres more too it to this question.
I did this not long ago
http://www.jiskha.com/display.cgi?id=1451681946
Are you sure this is right,someone told me since to get magmitude of the second i have to multiply 27 by first earthquake which is 3.2
27(3.2)=84
Im confused
*86.4 i mean
To determine the magnitude of the second earthquake on the Richter scale, you need to understand how the scale works and how earthquake intensities are related.
The Richter scale is a logarithmic scale that measures the amplitude of seismic waves released during an earthquake. Each increase of one unit on the Richter scale represents a tenfold increase in amplitude and approximately 31.6 times more energy released.
In this case, you are given that the second earthquake was 27 times more intense than the first earthquake. To find the magnitude of the second earthquake, you need to determine how many times more energy it released compared to the first earthquake.
To do this, you can use the formula:
Magnitude2 = Magnitude1 + log10(Intensity2 / Intensity1)
Here, Magnitude1 represents the magnitude of the first earthquake (3.2 in this case), Intensity2 represents the intensity of the second earthquake, and Intensity1 represents the intensity of the first earthquake.
Since you don't have the specific intensity values, you'll need to use the given information to find the ratio of intensities between the two earthquakes.
You are told that the second earthquake is 27 times more intense than the first earthquake. To express this ratio as a base-10 logarithm, you can rewrite it as:
Intensity2 / Intensity1 = 27 = 10^(log10(27)).
Now, you can substitute these values into the formula to solve for the magnitude of the second earthquake:
Magnitude2 = 3.2 + log10(10^(log10(27))).
By simplifying the expression within the parentheses and evaluating the logarithms, you should be able to find the magnitude of the second earthquake.
Let's go ahead and calculate it:
Magnitude2 = 3.2 + log10(27) ≈ 3.2 + 1.431 ≈ 4.631.
So, the magnitude of the second earthquake is approximately 4.631 on the Richter scale.
Therefore, your initial assumption of multiplying the magnitude of the first earthquake (3.2) by 27 is incorrect. To solve this question accurately, you need to consider the intensity ratios and use the logarithmic properties of the Richter scale.