Definition of logarithm The logarithm is the mathematical operation that is the inverse of exponentiation (raising a constant, the base,

to a power). The logarithm of a number x in base b is the number n such that x = bn. Thus b may never be 0 or a root of 1. It is usually written as . For example,

since . If n is a positive integer, bn means the product of n factors equal to b.

However, if b is a positive real number not equal to 1, the definition can be extended to any real number n in a field (at least a ring with 1) (see exponentiation for details). Similarly, the logarithm function can be defined for any positive real number. For each positive base, b, other than 1, there is one logarithm function and one exponential function; they are inverse functions. See the figure on the right. Logarithms can reduce multiplication operations to addition, division to subtraction, exponentiation to multiplication, and roots to division. Therefore, logarithms are useful for making lengthy numerical operations easier to perform and, before the advent of electronic computers, they were widely used for this purpose in fields such as astronomy, engineering, navigation, and cartography. They have important mathematical properties and are still used in many ways.

History The method of logarithms was first publicly propounded in 1614, in a book entitled Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio, by John Napier, Baron of Merchiston, in Scotland. (Joost Brgi independently discovered logarithms; however, he did not publish his discovery until four years after Napier.) Early resistance to the use of logarithms was muted by Kepler's enthusiastic support and his publication of a clear and impeccable explanation of how they worked. Their use contributed to the advance of science, and especially of astronomy, by making some difficult calculations possible. Prior to the advent of calculators and computers, they were used constantly in surveying, navigation, and other branches of practical mathematics. It supplanted the more involved method of prosthaphaeresis, which relied on trigonometric identities as a quick method of computing products. Besides the utility of the logarithm concept in computation, the natural logarithm presented a solution to the problem of quadrature of a hyperbolic sector at the hand of Gregoire de Saint-Vincent in 1647. At first, Napier called logarithms "artificial numbers" and antilogarithms "natural numbers". Later, Napier formed the word logarithm to mean a number that indicates a ratio: (logos) meaning proportion, and (arithmos) meaning number. Napier chose that because the difference of two logarithms determines the ratio of the numbers they represent, so that an arithmetic series of logarithms corresponds to a geometric series of numbers. The term antilogarithm was introduced in the late 17th century and, while never used extensively in mathematics, persisted in collections of tables until they fell into disuse.

Napier did not use a base as we now understand it, but his logarithms were, up to a scaling factor, effectively to base 1/e. For interpolation purposes and ease of calculation, it is useful to make the ratio r in the geometric series close to 1. Napier chose r = 1 - 107 = 0.999999 (Brgi chose r = 1 + 104 = 1.0001). Napier's original logarithms did not have log 1 = 0 but rather log 107 = 0. Thus if N is a number and L is its logarithm as calculated by Napier, N = 107(1 107)L. Since (1 107)107 is approximately 1/e, this makes L/107 approximately equal to log1/e N/107.

Mathematician and the reasons behind their works Logarithms were invented over a period of several years around the turn of the seventeenth century by John Napier (1550-1617), the Scottish Baron of Merchiston. Napier published two influential works that laid out the new mathematical tool of logarithms. In short, Napier noticed that the angle addition formulas for sine and cosine reduced multiplication to addition. His logarithms have the property that the log of a product can be calculated by adding the logs of the multipliers and then subtracting a constant [8]. His insight can be explained in the following manner: consider two points at rest and initiate motion at the same time. Napier compared the distance traveled by one point moving at uniform velocity on an infinite line to the distance yet to be traveled by a point on a finite line segment moving at a velocity inversely proportional to the distance it still must travel. From this he coined the term logarithm meaning ratio number in his second book, the Descriptio [2, 5, 6]. (However, in his first book, the Constructio, he referred to them as artificial numbers [2].) To calculate longitude and latitude, astronomical readings of up to seven digits (found using spherical trigonometry) need to be multiplied. By providing practitioners with extensive log and antilog tables, the large multiplications required could be computed by looking up their logs in a log table, performing addition and subtraction using those two numbers, then converting the answer back into a regular number using an antilog table. To allow for great enough accuracy, Napier took the length of his line to be 107, since sine tables commonly used at the time were taken to seven places. In Napiers terms : X=Nap log y, where Nap log (107)=0 Using calculus, Napiers log can be converted to modern logs using the following conversion [1]: Nap log y = 107 log1/e(y/107)

In the famous 1615 meeting between Henry Briggs (1561-1631) and Napier and the collaboration that followed, Briggs convinced Napier to revise his system of logs to use the base 10 instead [1, 5]. This new base gave the simplification log(10)=1. Briggs revised Napiers work, and after the latters death, published Arithmetica logarithmica in 1624. This work contained log tables for the base 10 (common logs) to 14 decimal places for the numbers 1-20,000 and 90,000-100,000, which complemented the tables in Napiers earlier works [11]. Adriaan Vlacq published a 10-place table for values from 1 to 100,000 in 1628, adding the 70,000 values. Both Briggs and Vlacq engaged in setting up log trigonometric tables. Such early tables were either to 1/100 of a degree or to a minute of arc. In the 18th century tables were published for 10-second intervals, which were convenient for seven-place tables. In general, finer intervals are required for logarithmic functions in which the logarithm is taken of smaller numbers; for example, in the calculation of the functions log sin x and log tan x. The related functions modified by division by x in the argument of the logarithm are easily calculated by series for small values of x. The availability of logarithms greatly influenced the form of plane and spherical trigonometry. Convenient formulas are ones in which the operations that depend on logarithms are done all at once. The recourse to the tables then consists of only two steps. One is obtaining logarithms, the other obtaining antilogs. The procedures of trigonometry were recast to produce such formulas.

Kronology inventor of logarithms 1550 1552 1588 John Napier1 was born in Edinburgh Scotland. Jobst Brgi was born in Switzerland. Brgi began working on his logarithms2 independent of Napier (I was unable to find the base to which Brgi created his logarithms). 1594 John Napier started work on his tables and spent the next twenty years completing. The tables were for trigonometric applications and gave the logarithms for the sine of angles 30o to 90o. Although Napier did not actually use in his logarithms it could be said his base was roughly 1/e. 1614 Napier published Mirifici logarithmorum canonis descriptio in which he discusses his logarithms. 10 March 1615 Henry Briggs wrote a letter roughly translating questions Napiers use of his base (1/e) and why he did not use base 10 and log 1 = 0. Napier replied that he too had the idea but could not create the tables due to an illness. Summer 1615 Henry Briggs visited John Napier and they spent a month working on the tables for the logarithms to base 10. 1616 4 April 1617 Henry Briggs visited John Napier a second time. John Napier passed away.

1617

Briggs published his Logarithmorum Chilias Prima which contained his tables for logarithms to base 10.

1619

Mirifici logarithmorum canonis constructio is published in which the method Napier used for constructing his logarithms is discussed.

1620

Brgis were published in his Arithmetische und Geometrische Progress-Tabulen.Brgis work went unnoticed due to the beginning of the Thirty Years War.

1622

William Oughtred invented the slide rule, which offered an even quicker way of calculating logarithms.

1632 1675 1685 1694

Jobst Brgi passed away. Newton discovers the fact that the d/dx ln x = 1/x. John Wallis realized that logarithms could be defined as exponents. Johann Bernoulli also realized that logarithms could be defined as exponents.

1694 to present

Logarithms had reached their full potential and most of what was done after 1694 was calculating logarithms to different bases.

Uses of logarithms Logarithms are useful in solving equations in which exponents are unknown. They have simple derivatives, so they are often used in the solution of integrals. The logarithm is one of three closely related functions. In the equation bn = x, b can be determined with radicals, n with logarithms, and x with exponentials. See logarithmic identities for several rules governing the logarithm functions. Science Various quantities in science are expressed as logarithms of other quantities; see logarithmic scale for an explanation and a more complete list. In chemistry, the negative of the base-10 logarithm of the activity of hydronium ions (H3O+, the form H+ takes in water) is the measure known as pH. The activity of hydronium ions in neutral water is 107 mol/L at 25 C, hence a pH of 7. The bel (symbol B) is a unit of measure which is the base-10 logarithm of ratios, such as power levels and voltage levels. It is mostly used in telecommunication, electronics, and acoustics. The Bel is named after telecommunications pioneer Alexander Graham Bell. The decibel (dB), equal to 0.1 bel, is more commonly used. The neper is a similar unit which uses the natural logarithm of a ratio. The Richter scale measures earthquake intensity on a base-10 logarithmic scale. In spectrometry and optics, the absorbance unit used to measure optical density is equivalent to 1 B. In astronomy, the apparent magnitude measures the brightness of stars logarithmically, since the eye also responds logarithmically to brightness. In psychophysics, the WeberFechner law proposes a logarithmic relationship between stimulus and sensation.

In computer science, logarithms often appear in bounds for computational complexity. For example, to sort N items using comparison can require time proportional to the product N log N. Similarly, base-2 logarithms are used to express the amount of storage space or memory required for a binary representation of a numberwith k bits (each a 0 or a 1) one can represent 2k distinct values, so any natural number N can be represented in no more than (log2 N) + 1 bits. Similarly, in information theory logarithms are used as a measure of quantity of information. If a message recipient may expect any one of N possible messages with equal likelihood, then the amount of information conveyed by any one such message is quantified as log2 N bits. In geometry the logarithm is used to form the metric for the half-plane model of hyperbolic geometry. Many types of engineering and scientific data are typically graphed on log-log or semilog axes, in order to most clearly show the form of the data. In inferential statistics, the logarithm of the data in a dataset can be used for parametric statistical testing if the original data does not meet the assumption of normality. Musical intervals are measured logarithmically as semitones. The interval between two notes in semitones is the base-21/12 logarithm of the frequency ratio (or equivalently, 12 times the base-2 logarithm). Fractional semitones are used for nonequal temperaments. Especially to measure deviations from the equal tempered scale, intervals are also expressed in cents (hundredths of an equally-tempered semitone). The interval between two notes in cents is the base-21/1200 logarithm of the frequency ratio (or 1200 times the base-2 logarithm).

Exponential functions One way of defining the exponential function ex, also written as exp(x), is as the inverse of the natural logarithm. It is positive for every real argument x. The operation of "raising b to a power p" for positive arguments b and all real exponents p is defined by the antilogarithm function is another name for the inverse of the logarithmic function. It is written antilogb(n) and means the same as bn. Easier computations Logarithms can be used to replace difficult operations on numbers by easier operations on their logs (in any base), as the following table summarizes. In the table, upper-case variables represent logs of corresponding lower-case variables: These arithmetic properties of logarithms make such calculations much faster. The use of logarithms was an essential skill until electronic computers and calculators became available. Indeed the discovery of logarithms, just before Newton's era, had an impact in the scientific world that can be compared with that of the advent of computers in the 20th century because it made feasible many calculations that had previously been too laborious. As an example, to approximate the product of two numbers one can look up their logarithms in a table, add them, and, using the table again, proceed from that sum to its antilogarithm, which is the desired product. The precision of the approximation can be increased by interpolating between table entries. For manual calculations that demand any appreciable precision, this process, requiring three lookups and a sum, is much faster than performing the multiplication. To achieve seven decimal places of accuracy requires a table that fills a single large volume; a table for nine-decimal accuracy occupies a few shelves. Similarly, to approximate a power cd one can look up log c in the table, look up the log of that, and add to it the log of d; roots can be approximated in much the same way.

The C and D scales on this slide rule are marked off at positions corresponding to the logarithms of the numbers shown. By mechanically adding the logs of 1.3 and 2, the cursor shows the product is 2.6. One key application of these techniques was celestial navigation. Once the invention of the chronometer made possible the accurate measurement of longitude at sea, mariners had everything necessary to reduce their navigational computations to mere additions. A five-digit table of logarithms and a table of the logarithms of trigonometric functions sufficed for most purposes, and those tables could fit in a small book. Another critical application with even broader impact was the slide rule, an essential calculating tool for engineers. Many of the powerful capabilities of the slide rule derive from a clever but simple design that relies on the arithmetic properties of logarithms. The slide rule allows computation much faster still than the techniques based on tables, but provides much less precision, although slide rule operations can be chained to calculate answers to any arbitrary precision.

Applications of logarithms in real-life situation CARBON DATING The bones tissue in all living animals contains both carbon-12, which is nonradioactive, and carbon-14, which is radioactive with a half-life of approximately 5730 years. As long as the animal is alive, the ratio of carbon-14 to carbon-12 remains constant. When the animal dies (t = 0), the carbon-14 begins to decay. Thus a bone that has a smaller ratio of carbon-14 to carbon-12 is older than a bone that has a larger ratio. So by measuring the ratio of carbon 14 to carbon 12 that is present and using the law of exponential decay of a radioactive source and their logarithms, scientists can calculate the age of the material. The amount of carbon-14 present at time t is N( t ) = N0(0.5) t/5730 where N0 is the amount of carbon-14 present in the bone at time t = 0. Application Determine the age of a bone if it now contains 85 percent of the carbon-14 when t = 0. Solution : Let t be the time at which N( t ) = 0.85N0(0.5) t/5730 . 0.85N0 = N0(0.5) t/5730 0.85 = (0.5) t/5730 Divide each side by N0 .

Taking the natural logarithm of each side produces ln 0.85 = In (0.5) t/5730 In 0.85 =
t In 0.5 5730

Power property

In 0.85 t = In 0.5 5730

5730

In 0.85 =t In 0.5

1340 t

To nearest 10 years

The bone is about 1340 years old.

THE DECIBEL SCALE The range of sound intensities that the human ear can detect is so large that a special decibel scale (named after the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell) is used to measure and compare different sound intensities. Specifically, the intensity level N of the sound measured in decibels is directly proportional to the power I of the sound measured in Watts per square centimetre. That formula is :
I N( I ) = 10 log I0

where I0 is the power of sound that is barely audible to the human ear. By international agreement, I0 is the constant 10-16 watts per square centimetre. Application The power of normal conversation is 10-10 watts per square centimetre. What is the intensity level N in decibels of normal conversation? Solution : Evaluate N(10-10).

I N( I ) = 10 log 16 10

-10 N(10 ) = 10 log 1016 10

-10 6

Substitute 10-10 for I

-10

= 10 log (10 )

since 1016 = 10 -10-(-16) = 106 10

= 10(6) = 60

The intensity level of normal conversation is 60 decibels. We might be tempted to conclude that three people each conversing at the same time, each with the power of normal conversing, would produce a combined intensity level of 3 . 60 decibels = 180 decibels. However, since the decibel scale is a logarithmic scale, this is not the case. In fact, three people conversing at the same time will produce a combined conversing with power of 3 . (10-10) watts per square centimetre. To find the intensity level in decibels of their combined conversation, substitute 3 . (10-10) for I in the intensity function .

I N( I ) = 10 log 16 10
-10 3 . 10 = 10 log (3 . 106) 65 N(3 . 10 ) = 10 log 16 10
-10

Thus the intensity of sound is not multiplicative. Although the power of conversation of three people is three times larger than the power of the conversation of single person, the intensity of sound in decibels of three people conversing (65 decibels) is not three times larger than the decibel rating of a single normal conversation (60 decibels) .