The Magnitude of the Big Bang is THE ANSWER!

[rampling]

I heard this cute factoid thirdhand, and unable to find it on the internet, I decided to see if I could replicate it for myself. Here is my work:

The formula for relating earthquake magnitude MS (on the Richter scale) to its energy yield in Joules is [ref]: ES = 1.74 × 105.24 + 1.44 MS

LOG10ES = 1.44 MS + 5.24

There is a large range of estimates for the energy content of the Big Bang. Here are the first five values I found by searching the internet: EBB = 4 × 1069 Joules
EBB = 1073 Joules
EBB = 1068 Joules
EBB = 1062 Joules
EBB = 1057 Joules
To prepare these values for use in the simple magnitude equation, take the common log of each value: LOG10EBB = 69.6
LOG10EBB = 73
LOG10EBB = 68
LOG10EBB = 62
LOG10EBB = 57
Now to pick a representative value, take the average of these numbers (yeah, it's not quite mathematically supportable, but, well, what could I do?): LOG10EBB = 65.92
Now calculate the magnitude of the Big Bang on the Richter scale:65.92 = 1.44 MBB + 5.24
MBB = 42.13
Take first two sig figs, to match the input log data: MBB = 42

∴ The Magnitude of the Big Bang on the Richter Scale is The Answer!

Q.E.D.