This means the same thing it means for any other use of a log scale. It means that the value can be a very small number or very, very big number.
The Richter scale is measuring the amplitude of waves recorded by seismographs. The amplitude of these waves for human-perceptible earthquakes has crossed 9.6 orders of magnitude since we started using seismographs.
Given this, the Richter scale does not have the widest range of any other log scale, if that’s what you mean. The pH scale, for example, has a range of 15 orders of magnitude.
If you are communicating with a lay audience, and want to give them a sense of the expected damage from an earthquake, or how it’ll physically feel, probably the best way to do that is with a verbal description.
If you are communicating with a scientific audience, you want to use a measured seismograph value. You could write out all those zeroes to express a high wave amplitude, but it’s convenient to use the log scale.
This means the same thing it means for any other use of a log scale. It means that the value can be a very small number or very, very big number.
The Richter scale is measuring the amplitude of waves recorded by seismographs. The amplitude of these waves for human-perceptible earthquakes has crossed 9.6 orders of magnitude since we started using seismographs.
Given this, the Richter scale does not have the widest range of any other log scale, if that’s what you mean. The pH scale, for example, has a range of 15 orders of magnitude.
If you are communicating with a lay audience, and want to give them a sense of the expected damage from an earthquake, or how it’ll physically feel, probably the best way to do that is with a verbal description.
If you are communicating with a scientific audience, you want to use a measured seismograph value. You could write out all those zeroes to express a high wave amplitude, but it’s convenient to use the log scale.