Brightness of stars: The apparent magnitude m of a star is a measure of its apparent brightness as the star is viewed from Earth. Larger magnitudes correspond to dimmer stars, and magnitudes can be...

Brightness of stars: The apparent magnitude m of a star is a measure of its apparent brightness as the star is viewed from Earth. Larger magnitudes correspond to dimmer stars, and magnitudes can

be negative, indicating a very bright star. For example, the brightest star in the night sky is Sirius, which has an apparent magnitude of −1.45. Stars with apparent magnitude greater than about 6 are not visible to the naked eye. The magnitude scale is not linear in that a star that is double the magnitude of another does not appear to be twice as dim. Rather, the relation goes as follows: If one star has an apparent magnitude of m1 and another has an apparent magnitude of m2, then the first star is t times as bright as the second, where t is given by

The North Star, Polaris, has an apparent magnitude of 2.04. How much brighter than Polaris does Sirius appear?