# Happy "PI Day" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 14, 2023, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-pi-day/981144 "2023-03-14T08:29:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-pi-day/981144/1 "2023-03-14T08:29:11Z")
I am very familiar with the Richter Scale. It is based on a number system whose root is the square root of 1,000 or 31.6227766016838 A Richter 1 earthquake has an energy of 1,995,262.3149689 joules. Since this number system is based on the square root of 1,000 (about 31.62), a Richter 2 earthquake has 31.6227766016838 times more energy than this. Richter 2 earthquake = 1,995,262 \* 31.62 ≈ 63,090,184 joules A Richter 3 earthquake has 1,000 times more energy than a Richter 1 earthquake. Therefore its energy is 1,995,262,314.9689 joules. Basically, I can calculate the earthquake energy for any Richter number. My problem is understanding what additional information almost every website states about earthquakes, For example, this website [https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/moment-magnitude-richter-scale-what-are-different-magnitude-scales-and-why-are-there-so-many](https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/moment-magnitude-richter-scale-what-are-different-magnitude-scales-and-why-are-there-so-many) states that ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-pi-day/981144/2 "2023-03-14T09:07:26Z")
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**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-pi-day/981144/3 "2023-03-14T09:10:15Z")
Given that the title does not match the subject of the post, and that the post is incomplete, I am going to assume that there was some sort of mistake or software malfunction here and close this.