What are scale factors. and could someone explain them?

Which ratio is equivalent to 10: 85

The magnitude, m, of an earthquake is defined to be m=log l/s, where i is the intensity of the earthquake (measured by the amplitude of the seismograph wave) and s is the intensity of a “standard” earthquake, which is barely detectable. what is the magnitude of an earthquake that is 1,000 times more intense than a standard earthquake? use a calculator. round your answer to the nearest tenth.

Explain how you can use the associative property to evaluate (7x50)x4.