Borrowing from the tradition of the ancient Greeks, the first ones
who tried to describe the brightness of stars with numbers ...
6 magnitudes = a ratio of 100 .
In more modern notation . . .
1 magnitude = ratio of (100) ^ (1/6)
= about 2.154...
9.6 magnitudes = (100) ^ (9.6/6)
= 100¹·⁶
= 1,584.89 (rounded)
c A ray of light is divided into its constituent colors by the first prism (left), and the resulting bundle of colred rays is reconstituted into white light by the second. Our modern understanding of light and color begins with Isaac Newton (1642-1726) and a series of experiments that he publishes in 1672.
isaac newton
