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magnitudemore about magnitude

magnitude

 

  3  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Magnitude  \Mag"ni*tude\,  n.  [L.  magnitudo,  from  magnus  great. 
  See  {Master},  and  cf  {Maxim}.] 
  1.  Extent  of  dimensions;  size;  --  applied  to  things  that  have 
  length,  breath,  and  thickness. 
 
  Conceive  those  particles  of  bodies  to  be  so  disposed 
  amongst  themselves,  that  the  intervals  of  empty 
  spaces  between  them  may  be  equal  in  magnitude  to 
  them  all  --Sir  I. 
  Newton. 
 
  2.  (Geom.)  That  which  has  one  or  more  of  the  three 
  dimensions,  length,  breadth,  and  thickness. 
 
  3.  Anything  of  which  greater  or  less  can  be  predicated,  as 
  time,  weight,  force,  and  the  like 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  magnitude 
  n  1:  the  property  of  relative  size  or  extent;  "they  tried  to 
  predict  the  magnitude  of  the  explosion" 
  2:  a  number  assigned  to  the  ratio  of  two  quantities;  two 
  quantities  are  of  the  same  order  of  magnitude  if  one  is 
  less  than  10  times  as  large  as  the  other  the  number  of 
  magnitudes  that  the  quantities  differ  is  specified  to 
  within  a  power  of  10  [syn:  {order  of  magnitude}] 
  3:  relative  importance:  "a  problem  of  the  first  magnitude" 
 
  From  THE  DEVIL'S  DICTIONARY  ((C)1911  Released  April  15  1993)  [devils]: 
 
  MAGNITUDE,  n.  Size.  Magnitude  being  purely  relative,  nothing  is 
  large  and  nothing  small  If  everything  in  the  universe  were  increased 
  in  bulk  one  thousand  diameters  nothing  would  be  any  larger  than  it  was 
  before  but  if  one  thing  remain  unchanged  all  the  others  would  be 
  larger  than  they  had  been  To  an  understanding  familiar  with  the 
  relativity  of  magnitude  and  distance  the  spaces  and  masses  of  the 
  astronomer  would  be  no  more  impressive  than  those  of  the  microscopist. 
  For  anything  we  know  to  the  contrary,  the  visible  universe  may  be  a 
  small  part  of  an  atom,  with  its  component  ions,  floating  in  the  life- 
  fluid  (luminiferous  ether)  of  some  animal.  Possibly  the  wee  creatures 
  peopling  the  corpuscles  of  our  own  blood  are  overcome  with  the  proper 
  emotion  when  contemplating  the  unthinkable  distance  from  one  of  these 
  to  another.




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