अहं सर्वस्य प्रभवो मत्तः सर्वं प्रवर्तते
What is common between Acidity, sound and Earthquake!?
It has been said that the simplest explanation is the best!
Even in neurology which is actually a complex science, Neurologists always have to explain the lesions in the simplest possible way! So all the signs of weakness and the ‘palsies’ must be explained by the least number of lesions in the brain!
But the answer to the above three is not simple!
In fact even though mathematics was my favorite subject in school; this was one topic which I used to loath since I hardly understood much!
The answer is that acidity, sound and Earthquake are all measured in a scale which is LOGARITHMIC!
A logarithmic scale is a nonlinear scale that compresses a wide range of values into a more manageable and compact form by plotting them on a scale where each unit of distance represents a multiplication by a constant factor, not an equal addition.
Unlike a linear scale where the distance between 1 and 2 is the same as between 99 and 100, on a logarithmic scale, the distance between 1 and 10 is the same as between 10 and 100.
There are different ways on how it works like
While in a linear scale, each interval is the same size (e.g., adding 10 each time: 10, 20, 30). In a logarithmic scale however, each interval is a multiplication by the base (typically base 10). This means the values are spaced exponentially (e.g., 10, 100, 1000, 10000).
A logarithmic scale can make data that is widely spread out easier to visualize on a single graph, showing both large and small values more clearly.
So even in our practice as physicians or Otologists, we use this scale.
The decibel scale uses a logarithmic scale to represent the vast range of sound intensities our ears can perceive. A 10 dB increase is 10 times the intensity, a 20 dB increase is 100 times, and so on! So when we give an average loss in terms of Log scale it is not in terms of percentage which is a common misconception!
Even your standard scale of Acidity or the pH scale is logarithmic; a change of one unit represents a tenfold change in acidity! Imagine that! The difference between a pH of 6 and 7 is not so little!
Of course there are many other places where you use the Log scale like finance and sales but the one which is probably most famous around the world would be the one to measure Earthquakes! Or the Richter scale!
The Richter scale is logarithmic, so an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 is 10 times more intense than a magnitude 5.0 earthquake, and 100 times more intense than a magnitude 4!
Do you understand how the small increment in the scale is actually a huge exponential leap? That is Log for you!
A huge leap also from chocolate boy to a serious guy is Jimmy Sheirgill!
Shubh ratri…
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