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Definition 2024

order of magnitude ‎(plural orders of magnitude)

The class of scale or magnitude of any amount, where each class contains values of a fixed ratio (most often 10) to the class preceding it. For example, something that is 2 orders of magnitude larger is 100 times larger, something that is 3 orders of magnitude larger is 1000 times larger, and something that is 6 orders of magnitude larger is a million times larger, because $10^{2}$ = 100, $10^{3}$ = 1000, and $10^{6}$ = a million.
- 2011, Enrico Fermi, Wikisource (translator), Concerning a Contradiction between the Electrodynamic and Relativistic Theory of Electromagnetic Mass, 1922, Enrico Fermi, Über einen Widerspruch zwischen der elektrodynamischen und relativistischen Theorie der elektromagnetischen Masse, Physikalische Zeitschrift, v 23, pp 340-344,
  However, we notice that although this contraction is of order of magnitude $v^{2}:c^{2}$ , it changes the most important terms of electromagnetic mass, i.e, the rest mass.

class of scale