it would just seem logical to make the brighter it is, the higher the magnitude. (meaning a higher number) Linguistically, it might be said that a higher magnitude has a lower number, i don't know. but why make it confusing?
2007-12-16 09:36:54 · 6 answers · asked by brandon 5 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
I'm talking about apparent magnitude
2007-12-16 09:50:03 · update #1
According to Wikipedia, the reason is simply because it has always been that way. My guess is the Greeks saw brightness as a measure of priority. They gave the brightest stars a magnitude of 1 and the dimmest stars a magnitude of 6.
Originally, there were six distinct levels, but in 1856 an astronomer named Norman Robert Pogson formalized the system and defined a magnitude 1 star to be 100 times brighter than a magnitude 6 star (which means that a magnitude N star is about 2.5 times as bright as a magnitude N+1 star). He also set the magnitude of 2 to be the brightness of Polaris. The magnitude of objects were then determined by precise measurement and that meant that some stars ended up having a negative magnitude.
2007-12-16 10:06:27 · answer #1 · answered by John B 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Hi. At first there were 6 magnitudes representing the range of brightnesses visible to the naked eye. The numbers were not exact back then, and some stars (and planets) had even brighter, or negative, values. This is why a mag 4 star is less bright than a mag 2 star.
This turned out to be a good thing because there are MANY more dim stars that are not visible with out aid and most of these would have negative numbers if the scale went the other way.
2007-12-16 09:42:36 · answer #2 · answered by Cirric 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
The reason why a first magnitude star is brighter than a second magnitude star is the same as why the best team in the NFL is the number one team. You would not place the brightest person in your school as number forty.
Each magnitude of star is approximately twice the brightness of the magnitude below it. So, a first magnitude star is twice as bright as a second magnitude star and so on.
2007-12-16 10:02:00 · answer #3 · answered by Raul D 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
There are actually two different kinds of magnitudes: apparent and absolute. Apparent is how bright it LOOKS. Absolute is how bright it WOULD LOOK if it was a certain distance away from Earth. Pretend there are two stars you are looking at: A dim one and a bright one. The bright one might only LOOK bright, because it is closer to you than the dim one. If you put the dim one next to the bright one and it suddenly looked brighter than the first bright one, then it has a greater ABSOLUTE magnitude. The farther away a star is, the dimmer it looks; even if it would look bright close up.
I hope this helped... it is a little confusing.
2007-12-16 09:47:30 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Ptolemy assigned visible stars to six groupings, by brightness. First magnitude, second magnitude, and so on.
It was much later that quantitative measurements showed an average 100:1 brightness difference between 1st and 6th magnitude stars. So each magnitude is a brightness ratio of log(base 6)(100) = 2.512.
2007-12-16 10:52:33 · answer #5 · answered by laurahal42 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
definite in the event that they're the comparable distance away. definite a million is brightest yet while it is extra desirable than two times as a procedures removed from the observer it is going to seem dimmer. it truly is noted as obvious importance
2016-12-11 06:56:02 · answer #6 · answered by quartermon 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋