Richter magnitude scaleThe Richter scale (ˈrɪktər), also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale, is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Francis Richter and presented in his landmark 1935 paper, where he called it the "magnitude scale". This was later revised and renamed the local magnitude scale, denoted as ML or .
Divided differencesIn mathematics, divided differences is an algorithm, historically used for computing tables of logarithms and trigonometric functions. Charles Babbage's difference engine, an early mechanical calculator, was designed to use this algorithm in its operation. Divided differences is a recursive division process. Given a sequence of data points , the method calculates the coefficients of the interpolation polynomial of these points in the Newton form.
