Orders Of Magnitude
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Orders Of Magnitude
In a ratio scale based on powers of ten, the order of magnitude is a measure of the nearness of two figures. Two numbers are "within an order of magnitude" of each other if their ratio is between 1/10 and 10. In other words, the two numbers are within about a factor of 10 of each other. For example, 1 and 1.02 are within an order of magnitude. So are 1 and 2, 1 and 9, or 1 and 0.2. However, 1 and 15 are not within an order of magnitude, since their ratio is 15/1 = 15 > 10. The reciprocal ratio, 1/15, is less than 0.1, so the same result is obtained. Difference (mathematics), Differences in order of magnitude can be measured on a base-10 logarithmic scale in "Decade (log scale), decades" (i.e., factors of ten). For example, there is one order of magnitude between 2 and 20, and two orders of magnitude between 2 and 200. Each division or multiplication by 10 is called an order of magnitude. This phrasing helps quickly express the difference in scale between 2 and 2,000,000: they di ...
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Ratio Scale
In mathematics, the set of positive real numbers, \R_ = \left\, is the subset of those real numbers that are greater than zero. The non-negative real numbers, \R_ = \left\, also include zero. Although the symbols \R_ and \R^ are ambiguously used for either of these, the notation \R_ or \R^ for \left\ and \R_^ or \R^_ for \left\ has also been widely employed, is aligned with the practice in algebra of denoting the exclusion of the zero element with a star, and should be understandable to most practicing mathematicians. In a complex plane, \R_ is identified with the positive real axis, and is usually drawn as a horizontal ray. This ray is used as reference in the polar form of a complex number. The real positive axis corresponds to complex numbers z = , z, \mathrm^, with argument \varphi = 0. Properties The set \R_ is closed under addition, multiplication, and division. It inherits a topology from the real line and, thus, has the structure of a multiplicative topological group or ...
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