Editing Seismometer (section)

== Nomenclature ==

The word derives from the [[Greek language|Greek]] σεισμός, ''seismós'', a shaking or quake, from the verb σείω, ''seíō'', to shake; and μέτρον, ''métron'', to measure, and was coined by [[David Milne-Home]] in 1841, to describe an instrument designed by Scottish physicist [[James David Forbes]].<ref name="Ben-Menahem">{{cite book |last=Ben-Menahem |first=A. |title=Historical Encyclopedia of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, Volume 1 |publisher=Springer |year=2009 |pages=2657 |isbn=978-3-540-68831-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9tUrarQYhKMC&pg=PA2657 |access-date=28 August 2012}}</ref>

''Seismograph'' is another Greek term from ''seismós'' and γράφω, ''gráphō'', to draw. It is often used to mean ''seismometer'', though it is more applicable to the older instruments in which the measuring and recording of ground motion were combined, than to modern systems, in which these functions are separated. Both types provide a continuous record of ground motion; this record distinguishes them from '''seismoscopes''', which merely indicate that motion has occurred, perhaps with some simple measure of how large it was.<ref>{{cite book |last=Richter |first=C.F. |title=Elementary Seismology |place=San Francisco |publisher=W.H. Freeman |year=1958}}</ref>

The technical discipline concerning such devices is called '''seismometry''',<ref name="LeeJennings2002">{{cite book |author1=William H.K. Lee |author2=Paul Jennings |author3=Carl Kisslinger |author4=Hiroo Kanamori |title=International Handbook of Earthquake & Engineering Seismology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aFNKqnC2E-sC&pg=PA283 |access-date=29 April 2013 |date=27 September 2002 |publisher=Academic Press |isbn=978-0-08-048922-3 |page=283}}</ref> a branch of [[seismology]].

The concept of measuring the "shaking" of something means that the word "seismograph" might be used in a more general sense.  For example, a monitoring station that tracks changes in [[electromagnetic]] noise affecting [[amateur radio]] waves presents an ''rf seismograph''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nsarc.ca/hf/rf_seismo/main.html |title=The RF Seismograph |website=nsarc.ca |access-date=28 March 2018 |archive-date=1 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201041523/http://www.nsarc.ca/hf/rf_seismo/main.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> And [[helioseismology]] studies the "quakes" on the [[Sun]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://solar-center.stanford.edu/singing/singing.html#helio |title=The Singing Sun |website=solar-center.stanford.edu |access-date=28 March 2018}}</ref>