Magnitude (mathematics) their magnitudes is called a norm. A vector space endowed with a norm, such as the Euclidean space, is called a normed vector space. Not all vector spaces are normed. In a pseudo-Euclidean space, the magnitude of a vector is the value of the quadratic form for that vector. When comparing magnitudes, a logarithmic scale is often used. Examples include the loudness of a sound (measured in decibels), the brightness of a star, and the Richter scale of earthquake intensity. Logarithmic magnitudes can be negative. It is not meaningful to simply add or subtract them. Orders of magnitude denote differences
Moment magnitude scale band. To simplify this calculation, he noted that the lowest frequency parts of the spectrum can often be used to estimate the rest of the spectrum. The lowest frequency asymptote of a seismic spectrum is characterized by the seismic moment, . Using an approximate relation between radiated energy and seismic moment (which assumes stress drop is complete and ignores fracture energy), (where E is in Joules and is in Nformula_4m), Kanamori approximated by The formula above made it much easier to estimate the energy-based magnitude , but it changed the fundamental nature of the scale into a moment magnitude scale.