The idea here is that the frequency of events is inversely proportional to their intensity. That sounds pretty abstract, until you put it in terms of earthquakes. There are, it turns out, several hundred of these in California each day. The vast majority, however, are imperceptible, falling within category three or below on the well-known Richter scale, in which the numbers go up by one as the intensity goes up by ten. Category four and five earthquakes, which you can feel but which do little or no damage, are fortunately less frequent, and it’s even more fortunate that the really damaging
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