Why Risk Needs a Logarithmic Scale. From starlight and music to event frequency and financial loss
We do not experience the world in the same way that measuring instruments record it. A sensor registers light intensity, sound pressure, frequency or temperature. A person experiences something as bright, loud, high-pitched, warm or heavy. These are not the same values. A lamp producing twice as much light does not necessarily appear twice as bright. A sound with ten times greater physical intensity does not feel ten times louder. An extra kilogram is easy to notice when lifting a small...
