Moment magnitude scale ground motion measured by a particular type of seismometer (a Wood-Anderson seismograph) at a distance of from the earthquake's epicenter. Because of this, there is an upper limit on the highest measurable magnitude, and all large earthquakes will tend to have a local magnitude of around 7. Further, the magnitude becomes unreliable for measurements taken at a distance of more than about from the epicenter. Since this scale was simple to use and corresponded well with the damage which was observed, it was extremely useful for engineering earthquake-resistant structures, and gained common acceptance. The Richter scale was not effective for
Magnitude (astronomy) been classified as "stars of the first magnitude". Magnitudes can also be calculated for objects far brighter than stars (such as the Sun and Moon), and for objects too faint for the human eye to see (such as Pluto). Often, only apparent magnitude is mentioned since it can be measured directly. Absolute magnitude can be calculated from apparent magnitude and distance from: This is known as the distance modulus, where is the distance to the star measured in parsecs, is the apparent magnitude, and is the absolute magnitude. If the line of sight between the object and observer is affected