Stars and their magnitude????????

Question

Is a magnitude -3 star brighter or dimmer than a magnitude 0 star? and by how much??????????????????

Answer 1

The larger the number, the dimmer the star.

The easiest way to picture this is to think of magnitude as a line with zero in the middle and the positive numbers on the right.  The farther right you go, the dimmer the star.  The farther left you go, the brighter the star.

So magnitude 0 is brighter than magnitude 1 which is brighter than magnitude 2.  And magnitude -2 is brighter than magnitude -1 which is brighter than magnitude 0.

Answer 2

it is dimmer. if you add 1 to the magnitude, the brightness decreases by a factor of 2.5.

a magnitude 0 star is 15.8 times brighter than a magnitude 3 star.

Answer 3

The -3 magnitude star is brighter than the 0 magnitude star.

The brightness ratio is 10^(3*0.4) =  15.85

Hence, it's nearly 16 times as bright.