Definition of Magnetude
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, breadth, 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.
4. Greatness; grandeur. "With plain,
heroic magnitude of mind." Milton.
5. Greatness, in reference to influence or
effect; importance; as, an affair of magnitude.
The magnitude of his designs.
Bp. Horsley.
Apparent magnitude (Opt.), the
angular breadth of an object viewed as measured by the angle which it
subtends at the eye of the observer; -- called also apparent
diameter. -- Magnitude of a star
(Astron.), the rank of a star with respect to brightness.
About twenty very bright stars are said to be of first magnitude, the
stars of the sixth magnitude being just visible to the naked eye.
Telescopic stars are classified down to the twelfth magnitude or
lower. The scale of the magnitudes is quite arbitrary, but by means
of photometers, the classification has been made to tenths of a
magnitude.
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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.
- 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
- The size or importance.
- (Mathematics) Of a vector, the norm, most commonly, the two-norm.
- The Nuttall Encyclopedia
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