Statics is the action of one body on another. A force is either a push or a pull. A force tends to move a body in the direction of its action. The action of a force is characterized by its magnitude, by the direction of its action, and by its point of application. Thus, force is a vector quantity, because its effect depends on the direction as well as on the magnitude of the action. Forces are classified as either contact or body forces. A contact force is produced by direct physical contact; an example is the force exerted on a
Photographic magnitude visual magnitude, because they appear dimmer. For example, the red supergiant star KW Sagittarii has a photographic magnitude of 11.0 to 13.2 but a visual magnitude of about 8.5 to 11. It is also common for star charts to list a blue magnitude (B) such as with S Doradus and WZ Sagittae. The symbol for apparent photographic magnitude is "m" and the symbol for absolute photographic magnitude is "M". The photographic magnitude scale is now considered obsolete. Photographic magnitude Before the advent of photometers which accurately measure the brightness of astronomical objects, the apparent magnitude of an object was obtained