Applications of exponential functions (Intensity of earthquakes and sound loudness)
Intensity of earthquakes and sound loudness
Richter scale is a logarithmic function to measure strength of earthquakes and its formula is given as,
Here R is the Richter scale magnitude of earthquake and is the intensity ratio of earthquakes.
The intensity of earthquake will typically measure between 2 and 10 on Richter scale.
Example1: An earthquake is measured with a wave intensity 200 times as great as I0. What is the magnitude of this earthquake using the Richter scale, to the nearest tenth?
Solution: Given that wave intensity 200 times as great as I0
So
Substituting these values into the formula, we get
R = log(200) = 2.3
Magnitude of this earthquake is 2.3 on Richter scale.
Above formula can also be used in another form when Richter magnitude of two earthquakes is given and we need to compare their intensities.
Where is the magnitude of weaker earthquake and M is the magnitude of stronger earthquake.
Example2: A small tremor of magnitude 3.4 is followed by strong one of magnitude 4.1. How much stronger is the second tremor than the first one.
Solution: Here we need to find intensity of earthquakes.
Using formula
Second tremor is 5 times stronger than the first one.
Example3: A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 is three times more intense than the weaker earthquake. Find the magnitude of weaker earthquake
Solution: Given that M =5.7 and . We need to find
.
Formula for loudness of sound using sound intensity is :
Where dB is decibel value of loud sound and is decibel value of soft sound.
is the intensity ratio of sounds.
Example4: A sound of 75dB is 50 times louder than a weaker sound. What is the loudness of weaker sound.
Solution:
Example5: Two different sounds has their loudness level as 80 dB and 100dB. How much louder is the second sound?
Solution:
So the louder sound is 100 times intense than the weaker sound.
Formula to find acid strength is:
Where is the concentration of hydrogen ion and pH is acid strength(power of hydrogen)
Example6: Calculate the pH of the acid which has concentration of ions as
.
Solution:
pH = 4.60
Example7: Find hydrogen concentration of acid which has a pH value of 3.7
Solution:
Practice problems:
- A small tremor of magnitude 2.3 is followed by strong one of magnitude 5.3. How much stronger is the second tremor than the first one.
- A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 5.9 is one thousand times more intense than the weaker earthquake. Find the magnitude of weaker earthquake.
- A sound of 70dB is 8900 times louder than a weaker sound. What is the loudness of weaker sound.
- Two different sounds has their loudness level as 97 dB and 110dB. How much louder is the second sound?
- Find hydrogen concentration of acid which has a pH value of 8.7
Answers:
- 1000
- 2.9
- 30.5 dB
- 20
-
mol/L