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What is the magnitude of a star that's 10 times brighter than a fifth magnitude star?

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The apparent magnitude
m_i of a star i measured with respect to the magnitude
m_(ref) of another star is given by

m_i -m_(ref)=-2.5 \log_(10)( (I_i)/(I_(ref)) )
where
I_i and
I_(ref) are the brightnesses of the two stars.

In our problem, the star used as reference has magnitude 5, so
m_(ref)=5. We also know that the star i is 10 times brighter than the star of magnitude 5, so

(I_i)/(I_(ref))=10
therefore, we can rewrite the original equation as:

m_i-5 = -2.5 \log_(10)(10)=-2.5
And so, the magnitude of the star i is

m_i = 5-2.5 = 2.5

User Hanachronism
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