Properties of Logarithms

Solving Quadratic equations

Introduction

A logarithm is a mathematical expression written in the form log a b .

a is called base of the logarithm and b is called argument of the logarithm respectively.
Restrictions
Regarding the value of the logarithm’s base, we want it to be positive and different than 1 while
considering the value of the logarithm’s argument, we want it to be strictly bigger than 0.
Arithmetic value

To calculate a given logarithm we can apply the rule: log a b = x  a =b

x

Special logarithms

If a logarithm has a base of 10, then instead of writing log10 b , we can simply write it as log b

If the base of a logarithm is equal to the natural number e, then instead of writing loge b
we can write is as ln b .

Example
Find the arithmetic value of each one of the following logarithms. We can easily
understand that the
number of logarithms
we are able to
i ) log 2 4 = ? let log 2 4 = x → 2 x = 4 → x = 2 calculate on our own
is very limited.
ii ) log 3 81 = ? let log 3 81 = x → 3x = 81 → x = 4 In most cases we will
need the help of a
calculator.
iii ) log1000 = ? let log1000 = x → 10 x = 1000 → x = 3

iv) log 0.01 = ? let log 0.01 = x → 10 x = 0.01 → 10 x = 10−2 → x = −2

v) ln 6 = ? let ln 6 = x → e x = 6 → x = .... 1.79

1
Charalampidis Dimitris

Properties of logarithms:

1) log n a + log n b = log n a  b

Always remember that you can only

a apply these properties for logarithms
2) log n a − log n b = log n
b that have the same base.

3) log n a c = c  log n a

Example
Apply the appropriate properties to write each given expression as a single logarithm.

log 4 + log 7 : log 4 + log 7 = log ( 4  7 ) = log 28

6
log 6 − log10 : log 6 − log10 = log = log 0.6
10
log 62 : log 62 = 2log 6

4log 3 : 4log 3 = log 34

5log 3 + 7 log8 : 5log 3 + 7 log8 = log 35 + log87 = log ( 35  87 )

43 64
3log 4 − 5log 2 : 3log 4 − 5log 2 = log 4 − log 2 = log 5 = log
3 5
= log 2
2 32

1
1 16
2log 4 − log 3 = log 42 − log 3 2 = log16 − log 3 = log
2 3
Properties of Logarithms

Example

Assuming that log a = x and log b = y , express in terms of x and (or) y each one of the
following logarithms.

i ) log a 3 = ? Ans : log a 3 = 3log a = 3 x

ii ) log ab = ? Ans : log ab = log a + log b = x + y

iii ) log a 2b3 = ? Ans : log a 2b3 = log a 2 + log b3 = 2log a + 3log b = 2 x + 3 y

1 1
iv) log =? Ans : log = log1 − log a = 0 − log a = − log a = − x
a a

a a
v) log =? Ans : log = log a − log b = x − y
b b

a2 a2
vi ) log =? Ans : log = log a 2 − log b3 = 2log a − 3log b = 2 x − 3 y
b3 b 3

Change of base
We can always go from one given base to any base we want. To do so we need to apply the
log c b
following formula: log a b =
log c a

Example

Given the logarithm log 2 9 , we can turn this number to an equivalent expression using

log10 9 log 9
logarithms with a base of 10 as follows: log 2 9 = =
log10 2 log 2