What is Magnitude: Definition and 1000 Discussions

An order of magnitude is an approximation of the logarithm of a value relative to some contextually understood reference value, usually ten, interpreted as the base of the logarithm and the representative of values of magnitude one. Logarithmic distributions are common in nature and
considering the order of magnitude of values sampled from such a distribution can be more intuitive. When the reference value is ten, the order of magnitude can be understood as the number of digits in the base-10 representation of the value. Similarly, if the reference value is one of certain powers of two, the magnitude can be understood as the amount of computer memory needed to store the exact integer value.
Differences in order of magnitude can be measured on a base-10 logarithmic scale in “decades” (i.e., factors of ten). Examples of numbers of different magnitudes can be found at Orders of magnitude (numbers).

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  1. C

    Coulomb's Law (Finding magnitude & direction of net force)

    Homework Statement Three positive particles of equal charge, +11.5 µC, are located at the corners of an equilateral triangle of side d = 13.0 cm (Fig. 16-50). Calculate the magnitude and direction of the net force on each particle. Image is here...
  2. S

    What is the magnitude of the net electric field at the center of the square due to

    Homework Statement A point charge is placed at each corner of a square with side length a. The charges all have the same magnitude q. Two of the charges are positive and two are negative, as shown in the following figure. The two positive charges are on top and the two negative charges...
  3. 4

    Magnitude of Cross Product Mismatch

    Homework Statement Find the magnitude of the vector product w ⃗x u, where w=<1,0,1> and u=<1,1,0>. Homework Equations ||w x u|| = ||w|| ||u|| sin θ cos θ = \frac{w.u}{||w|| ||u||} The Attempt at a Solution w ⃗x u ⃗= -i ̂+j ̂+k ̂ ‖||w ⃗x u|| ⃗ ‖= √3 but...
  4. E

    Is there a magnitude of momentum quantum operator?

    Is there a "magnitude of momentum" quantum operator? Homework Statement Is the ground state of the infinite square well an eigenfunction of momentum? If so, what is its momentum? If not, why not? What can you say about the magnitude of the momentum? Homework Equations Ground state...
  5. M

    What is the magnitude of the sum of the following vectors?

    Homework Statement What is the magnitude of the sum of the following vectors? A= i +5j -k B= 4i-j-5k C= -i+j Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution What I did was I added i+4i-i to get 5i, I also added 5k+j-5 to get 5j, likewise for k to get -6k and did the...
  6. M

    The magnitude of the vector difference , is closest to

    Homework Statement The components of vectors and are given as follows: Ax = +5.7 Bx = -9.8 Ay = -3.6 By = -6.5 The magnitude of the vector difference ,B-A is closest to: Homework Equations A=square root (ax)^2+ay^2 B= square root (bx)^2 + by^2 The Attempt at a Solution...
  7. C

    Calculate the magnitude and direction of the net electric force

    Homework Statement Three point charges lie along a straight line as shown in the figure below, where q1 = 6.60 µC, q2 = 1.41 µC, and q3 = -1.9 µC. The separation distances are d1 = 3.00 cm and d2 = 2.00 cm. Calculate the magnitude and direction of the net electric force on each of the...
  8. J

    Calculate the magnitude of the net force on each charge

    Homework Statement Four objects, each with a positive charge of 1.0 3 1025 C, are placed at the corners of a 45° rhombus with sides of length 1.0 m, as in Figure 13. Calculate the magnitude of the net force on each charge. Homework Equations F = Kq1q2/r^2 The Attempt at a Solution
  9. C

    Static Friction: Max Force Magnitude Applied?

    Homework Statement Which of the following statements are true about Fs, max in the equation mu=Fs, max/Fnormal? I. Fs, max is exerted perpendicular to the surfaces in contact. II. Fs, max represents the maximum value of the force of static friction. III. On a level surface, the magnitude of...
  10. B

    Determine the magnitude and direction of smallest force

    Homework Statement To move the oil drum, the resultant of the three forces shown must have a magnitude of 500 N. Determine the magnitude and direction of the smallest force F that would cause the drum to move. here is the figure: http://screensnapr.com/e/yliMVN.png Homework...
  11. I

    What Is the Magnitude of the Impulse Delivered to the Football?

    A(n) 0.445 kg football is thrown with a speed of 15.1 m/s. A stationary receiver catches the ball and brings it to rest in 0.012 s. What is the magnitude of the impulse de- livered to the ball? Answer in units of kg · m/s f=m*a Δp=m*Δv i used f= ma since a= Δv/t i got F=...
  12. Z

    Work Done By A Force of Constant Magnitude in Moving an Object in a Circle

    Homework Statement A wagon is drawn by a student pulling with a constant force of F Newtons applied at an angle of θ° to the horizontal. If the wagon is drawn in a circle with radius r meters, how much work is done on the wagon? (I don't remember the actual numbers) Homework Equations...
  13. H

    What magnitude of tension is in the wire?

    a 4kg magpie flies towards a very tight plastic wire on a clothes line. the wire is perfectly horizontal and is stretched between poles 4m apart. the magpie lands on the center of the wire, depressing it by a vertical distance of 4.0cm. what magnitude of tension is in the wire?
  14. M

    An object that has direction but no magnitude?

    A scalar has magnitude and no direction; a vector has both direction and magnitude. Is there a name for a physical or mathematical object with direction but no magnitude? I guess a description of it could be something like \lim_{\|v\|\to 0} \vec{v}
  15. L

    What is the magnitude and angle of displacement given three vectors?

    Homework Statement Compute the magnitude of the displacement (\vec{}R and the angle with respect to the x-axis. Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution A = 10m * sin30° \hat{}y+ 10m * cos30° \hat{}x \vec{}A = 5m \hat{}y + 8.66m \hat{}x B = 15m C = 20m * sin80°...
  16. D

    Parallel and perpendicular vectors with given magnitude

    Homework Statement Given two vectors A=9i+1j+9k and B=12i-12j+10k find: a) Their dot product AB b) Their cross product AxB c)The angle between the vectors A and B d) a vector C that is parallel with A and has the same magnitude as B e) A vector C that is perpendicular to A and has the...
  17. S

    What are the magnitude and direction of the friction force?

    Homework Statement A 200N block is on a 35 degree incline with a frictionless, massless pulley and a weight on the other side, Fw= 220. The system is in equilibrium. What are the magnitude and direction of the frictional force on the 200N block? Homework Equations and The Attempt at...
  18. F

    Magnitude of vector, negative in part.

    This is actually not a full problem, just a part of one I'm having trouble with: Homework Statement If I have a acceleration vector, say [ bk^{2}e^{kt} - bc^{2}e^{kt} ]e_{r} + [ 2bkce^{kt} ] e_{θ}. How can I find its magnitude? Homework Equations Mag vector |a| = (a^2)^(1/2) The Attempt...
  19. M

    Absolute and apparent magnitude

    is that both of absolute and apparent magnitude counts only visible light? since i found some books said absolute magnitude counts luminosity instead of intensity, where luminosity includes also the non-visible frequencies. thank you!
  20. B

    What is the magnitude of the resultant velocity of the seed?

    Here's the question: A bird drops a seed, which falls with a steady vertical terminal velocity of 4.8 m/s. A slight breeze blows the seed toward the west at 1.2 m/s. (a) What is the magnitude of the resultant velocity of the seed? (b) What is the direction (in degrees west of the...
  21. R

    Determin the magnitude of the net electric field of three point charges

    Homework Statement There are three point charges, q1 has a magnitude of 3.00mC (the sign is not known) and is 5.0cm away from P and 13.0 cm away from q2. P is 12.0cm away from q2 and the three points form a triangle. The net electric field at point P is entirely in the negative y-direction...
  22. E

    Electric Field Magnitude at Point P Inside a Charged Sphere

    An insulating solid sphere of radius a = 1.2 m is uniformly charged with charge Q = 4.5 x 10^-6 C. Point P inside the sphere is at a distance r = 0.60 m from the sphere center C. What is the magnitude of the electric field at point P? So I'm using Gauss' Law: q,enc = Q[(pi * r^2)/ (pi *...
  23. Z

    Apparent magnitude of a binary star system

    Homework Statement A binary star system consists of a hot main sequence star (m=0.5m) and a red giant (m=1.2m), the parallax of the system is p=0.0012". Calculate the apparent magnitude of the system. Homework Equations I have b1/b2 = 2.512^(m2-m1) and p=1/r The Attempt at a...
  24. S

    Magnitude of angular acceleration- my first post ever in physics forum

    Homework Statement CD is playing for 74 min, starts at angular speed of 480 rpm then slows to 210rpm. what's the magnitude of the angular acceleration Homework Equations angular acceleration =ω/ t The Attempt at a Solution i converted the rev to rad then min to sec then divided...
  25. E

    Finding magnitude and direction

    Homework Statement The resultant vector of the four displacement vector A B C D is 1000m, with direction 60° N of W. The three vectors A B C are: A=200m,S B=300m,45° S of W C=400m,30° E of N a.) Find the magnitude of the fourth vector b.) find the direction of the fourth vector Homework...
  26. D

    How to find the magnitude of this bivector?

    How does one find the value of ||A \left(\hat{\imath}\wedge\hat{\jmath}\right) +B(\hat{\imath}\wedge\hat{k})+C( \hat{\jmath}\wedge\hat{k})|| Where A, B and C are constant coefficients. Thanks in advance.
  27. P

    Electric Field Strength magnitude

    Hi, Four point charges of equal magnitude are held at the corners of a square. The length of each side of the square is 2a and the sign of the charges are the following: Two positive charges on the top two corners of the square and two negative charges on the bottom two corners of the square...
  28. A

    Repeat Q: Ignore. Show what the magnitude of induced emf

    Show what the magnitude of induced emf Homework Statement Consider a magnetic field B = K(x3z2,0, -x2z3)sinωt in the region of interest, where K and ω are positive constants and t is variable time. Show that the magnitude of the induced emf around a circle R in the plane z = a with its center...
  29. A

    Show what the magnitude of induced emf

    Someone who knows what they are talking about: Show what the magnitude of induced emf Homework Statement Consider a magnetic field B = K(x3z2,0, -x2z3)sinωt in the region of interest, where K and ω are positive constants and t is variable time. Show that the magnitude of the induced emf...
  30. V

    Magnitude and direction of tension in a suspended and frictionless pulley

    [PLAIN]http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/12942474909/1/tumblr_lutva4tbpB1qml28n
  31. T

    How do I convert luminosity to magnitude?

    I am trying to find out how fast a star's magnitude changes over time, and have two columns of data. The first is the time since the stay left the main sequence, and the second is Log (L/L_sun). I am unsure as to how to chance the luminosity values into magnitudes, which means I can't answer...
  32. P

    Magnitude of total resistant force on a car?

    Homework Statement A car needs to generate 75 hp in order to maintain a constant velocity of 27.3m/s on a flat road. What is the magnitude of the total resistive force acting on the car. (due to friction,air resistance etc.) Homework Equations 1hp=746 watts The Attempt at a Solution...
  33. C

    Find the magnitude of the magnetic field 10 cm from the wire

    Homework Statement A) Find the magnitude of the magnetic field 10 cm away from the wire at point P as shown in the picture. The current is directed along the x-axis. B) Find its direction Info: I = 5 amps. Point P lies on the Y-axis. Current on the X-axis. Picture (I have drawn)...
  34. T

    Answear to magnitude of an object slowing to a halt? negative or positive?

    I have calculated magnitude of acceleration of an object slowing to a stop to be: -5.1m s^-1. I then had to find the magnitude of the unbalnced force applied to the object for it to stop which i found to be: So F= 1500 kg * 5.1 m s^-2 Which equals 7650kg m s^-2 Which...
  35. J

    I need a good explanation of phase and magnitude spectra

    I understand that having a periodic signal x(t) we can find a signal y(t) which uses harmonically related exponentials in order to construct the x(t) signal each exponential has a frequency and magnitude, for example 3*e^{j 2 \omega} has a frequency of \frac{2 \pi}{2 \omega} =...
  36. D

    Find the magnitude of acceleration along a curved path

    Homework Statement First I was asked to parametrize the motion according to \theta and I got x: -cos \theta+1 and y:-sin\theta+1 Now, I have to find the magnitude of the acceleration along the path at a point given by \theta. How do I do this? Also, I only have figured out the...
  37. QuarkCharmer

    What is the magnitude of the net gravitational force

    Gravitation Force (Solved, thanks) Homework Statement A sphere with mass of 65kg and center at origin. Another sphere with mass 79kg at point (0,3), also centered at origin. A.) What is the magnitude of the net gravitational force due to these objects on a third uniform sphere with mass...
  38. N

    Dirac Notation and Magnitude of Bra's Help

    Hi all, I was diving into my 3rd year quantum assignment and I saw the following which I have to use for the rest of the question to prove the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality: Homework Statement || a|x> + b|y> ||^2 I only really learned a bit about Dirac notation last year, so please...
  39. D

    Pilot problem dealing with weight and magnitude of force exerted on pilot's body

    Homework Statement The Pilot of an airplane executes a loop-the-loop manuever in a vertical circle. The airplane's speed is 300 mi/h at the top of the loop and 450 mi/h at the bottom. The radius of the circle is 1200 ft. Use American Engineering units in this problem. A) The pilot's...
  40. D

    How to Determine Force Magnitude in a Static Friction Problem?

    Find Force Magnitude Problem...Please Help! Homework Statement 1. You Push a block of mass 3.00 kg against a vertical wall by applying a force of magnitude P at an angle of 50.0 degrees above the horizontal. The coefficient of static friction between block and wall is 0.250. Determine the...
  41. P

    Magnitude of Magnetic force on Wire

    An isolated segment of wire of length L=4.50 m carries a current of magnitude i=35.0 A at an angle theta=50.3 degrees with respect to a constant magnetic field with magnitude B= 6.70E-2 T. What is the magnitude of the magnetic force on the wire? a) 2.66 N b) 3.86 c) 5.60 N d) 8.12 N e) 11.8...
  42. S

    Vectors: Find magnitude and direction of the changes in velocity

    Homework Statement Given the initial (u) and final (v) velocities below, find the magnitude and direction of the changes in velocity: Homework Equations (a) through (f) - I only have trouble with (e) and (f) (e): u = 10ms east, v = 15ms N40°W (f): u = 250ms N20°W, v = 200ms south...
  43. Z

    Calculating Magnitude and Vector Componends given Momentum and Mass

    Hi =) just signed up, and i really need help this term. I am really having a hard time this term absorbing what's going on, I am getting things mixed up, and I am falling behind.. I am finding myself quickly losing my confidence and becoming quite frustrated and stressed out ;( I am really...
  44. S

    Find unknown EMF magnitude in circuit

    Homework Statement A DC circuit which includes Emfx of unkown magnitude and orientation, at the location indicated is shown below. Note the 'ground' (V=0) in the circuit. The potential between 'b' and 'a', Vb-Va, is measured to be 2.00 V. a) The magnitude of Emfx is: b) Calculate...
  45. M

    Magnitude and Direction of E-field at a Point Due to a Charged Rod

    Homework Statement There is a non-conducting charged rod with length L=.0815(m) and linear charge density λ=-5.9x10-14(C/m). The rod is placed parallel to and on the x-axis, and at a distance a=.12(m) from the right-most end of the rod is point P. Calculate the magnitude and direction of E...
  46. H

    Magnitude of Electric Field from an Atom

    Homework Statement The neutral neptunium atom has 93 electrons. What is the magnitude of its electric field at a distance of 6.5x10-10 m from the nucleus? Hint: The number of protons in a nucleus is equal to the number of electrons in the neutral atom. q = 1.6e-19 * 93 = 1.48e-17...
  47. S

    Magnitude of average acceleration?

    I haven't done anything Physics related in 2 years (high school) and am trying to get back into being familiar with Physics, Science, and mathematical terms for an upcoming class. Homework Statement A gazelle starts from rest and runs in a straight line 29° north of west. After 36s of...
  48. P

    Lifting a crate magnitude of forces.

    Homework Statement a woman is straining to lift a large crate with no sucess. its too heavy. we denote the forces on the crate as follows: P is the upward force on the crate by the person. C is the contact force on the crate by the floor and w is the weight. how are the magnitudes related...
  49. B

    What magnitude of force must the worker apply?

    Homework Statement A factory worker pushes a 30.0-kg crate a distance of 4.5. along a level floor at constant speed by pushing horizontally on it. The coefficient of kinetic friction between the crate and the floor is 0.25. (a) What magnitude of force must the worker apply? Homework...
  50. J

    Magnitude of normal force question

    Homework Statement A woman pulls on her suitcase with a force of 105N at an angle of 38 degrees above the horizontal. The coefficients of static and kinetic friction between and suitcase and the floor are 0.273 and 0.117. The mass of the suitcase is 36 kg. what is the magnitude of the normal...
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