a.

It the Richter scale, a logarithmic function that is used to measure the magnitude
of earthquakes. The magnitude of an earthquake is related to how much energy is
released by the quake. Instruments called seismographs detect movement in the
earth; the smallest movement that can be detected shows on a seismograph as a
wave with amplitude A0, whereas the magnitude observed as a result of the
earthquake is labelled A. Richter scale is defined as:
R = log(A/A0)
A difference of 1 point on the Richter scale equates to a 10-fold difference in the
amplitude of the earthquake (which is related to the wave strength). This means
that an earthquake that measures 3.6 on the Richter scale has 10 times the
amplitude of one that measures 2.6.
b. If one were asked to plot the function:
y = Cax,
one would probably sketch it on the linear scale (in the standard xy-plane).
Alternatively, you could plot this function using the logarithmic scale. To do this
you would take the logarithm of both sides and plot log (y) against x, as shown
below:
log (y) = log (Cax) = log (C) + log (ax) = log (C) + x log (a)
Thus, on conversion, this becomes a linear equation in log and thus, becomes
easier to solve and plot.
c. There are two main reasons to use logarithmic scales in charts and graphs. The
first is to respond to skewness towards large values; i.e., cases in which one or a
few points are much larger than the bulk of the data. The second is to show
percent change or multiplicative factors.
A simple comparison of linear and log scales can show how log scales can simplify
representation of data, as well as analysis. Assume the below data is for the sales
at a company across different years, it is easy to see how log scale makes
visualisation easier.