Charles Francis Richter famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

Nothing is less predictable than the development of an active scientific field.
-- Charles Francis Richter

#Development #Fields #Active
Don't wait for extraordinary circumstance to do good; try to use ordinary situations.
-- Charles Francis Richter

#Procrastination #Waiting #Trying
In every area of the world where there is earthquake risk, there are still many buildings of this type; it is very frustrating to try to get rid of them.
-- Charles Francis Richter

#Earthquakes #Risk #Trying
As seismologists gained more experience from earthquake records, it became obvious that the problem could not be reduced to a single peak acceleration. In fact, a full frequency of vibrations occurs.
-- Charles Francis Richter

#Earthquakes #Records #Vibrations
Only fools, liars, and charlatans predict earthquakes
-- Charles Francis Richter

#Liars #Earthquakes #Fool
If the assumptions used in calculating energy are changed, then this seriously affects the final result, even though the same body of data might be used.
-- Charles Francis Richter

#Data #Finals #Body
I would walk - not run - to the nearest seismograph.
-- Charles Francis Richter

#Running #Earthquakes #Walks
The most remarkable feature about the magnitude scale was that it worked at all and that it could be extended on a worldwide basis. It was originally envisaged as a rather rough-and-ready procedure by which we could grade earthquakes. We would have been happy if we could have assigned just three categories, large, medium, and small; the point is, we wanted to avoid personal judgments. It actually turned out to be quite a finely tuned scale.
-- Charles Francis Richter

#Earthquakes #Three #Judgment
Lately there have been complaints that the use of the magnitude scale is confusing, or at least the reporting of magnitudes in the newspapers 'confuses the public.
-- Charles Francis Richter

#Confusion #Confusing #Use
If one introduces the concept of energy of an earthquake then that is a theoretically derived quantity.
-- Charles Francis Richter

#Earthquakes #Energy #Introducing
I was lucky because logarithmic plots are a device of the devil.
-- Charles Francis Richter

#Devil #Plot #Lucky
[In plotting earthquake measurements] the range between the largest and smallest magnitudes seemed unmanageably large. Dr. Beno Gutenberg then made the natural suggestion to plot the amplitudes logarithmically.
-- Charles Francis Richter

#Earthquakes #Suggestions #Gutenberg
The usual designation of the magnitude scale to my name does less than justice to the great part that Dr. Gutenberg played in extending the scale to apply to earthquakes in all parts of the world.
-- Charles Francis Richter

#Earthquakes #Names #Justice
Most loss of life and property has been due to the collapse of antiquated and unsafe structures, mostly of brick and other masonry. ... There is progress of California toward building new construction according to earthquake-resistant design. We would have less reason to ask for earthquake prediction if this was universal.
-- Charles Francis Richter

#Life #Loss #Earthquakes
Refining is inevitable in science when you have made measurements of a phenomenon for a long period of time.
-- Charles Francis Richter

#Science #Long #Measurement
Magnitude may be compared to the power output in kilowatts of a [radio] broadcasting station; local intensity, on the Mercalli or similar scale, is then comparable to the signal strength noted on a receiver at a given locality. Intensity, like signal strength, will generally fall off with distance from the source; it will also depend on local conditions at the point of observation, and to some extent on the conditions along the path from source to that point.
-- Charles Francis Richter

#Distance #Fall #May
I have a sense of humor; but over the years that sense has developed one blind spot. I can no longer laugh at ignorance or stupidity. Those are our chief enemies, and it is dangerous to make fun of them.
-- Charles Francis Richter

#Fun #Ignorance #Years
According to Democritus, truth lies at the bottom of a well, the water of which serves as a mirror in which objects may be reflected. I have heard, however, that some philosophers, in seeking for truth, to pay homage to her, have seen their own image and adored it instead.
-- Charles Francis Richter

#Lying #Mirrors #Water
The laboratory routine, which involves a great deal of measurement, filing, and tabulation, is either my lifeline or my chief handicap, I hardly know which.
-- Charles Francis Richter

#Knowledge #Science #Routine

You may also like:

Ahmed H. Zewail
Scientist
Alfred Wegener
Researcher
Antoine Lavoisier
Chemist
August Kekule
Chemist
Ernest Rutherford
Physicist
Erwin Chargaff
Francis Crick
Scientist
Frank Press
Author
Frederick Sanger
Biochemist
Gilbert N. Lewis
Chemist
Harold Jeffreys
Mathematician
Inge Lehmann
Seismologist
James D. Watson
Molecular Biologist
John Bardeen
Physicist
Marie Curie
Physicist
Max Perutz
Scientist
Niels Bohr
Physicist
Robert S. Mulliken
Physicist
Rosalind Franklin
Scientist
Theodore von Karman
Aerospace Engineer