In astronomy brightness of stars is measured in 'magnitudes' that are
logarithmic, not sure when that started?
Diana Kornbrot
On Thu, 1 Apr 1999, Robert Stein wrote:
> The Sand Reckoner is indeed interesting, in that it is the first to
> deal with the issue of "order of magnitude". However, I was motivated
> by the use of scientific notation in the modern form, where in effect
> one calculates with the mantissas and then adjusts the decimal point
> in accordance with the laws of exponents and the characteristics. This
> is now so ubiquitous on calculators that one would think its history
> is well documented. Since I am interested in the history of logarithms,
> I thought my wife's question would be easy for me to answer, but so far
> it has proved resistant. In the meantime, however, I really enjoyed
> looking over the Sand Reckoner again. Thanks for bringing me back to it.
> Bob
>
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Dr. Diana Kornbrot
Reader in Mathematical Psychology
Associate Dean Research, Faculty of Health & Human Sciences
University of Hertfordshire
College Lane, Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL10 9AB, UK
voice: +44 0170 728 4626 fax: +44 0170 728 5073
email: d.e.kornbrot@herts.ac.uk
web: http://phoenix.herts.ac.uk/pub/D.E.Kornbrot/hmpage.html
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