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The idea of logarithms was also used to construct the slide rule, which became ubiquitous in science and engineering until the 1970s. A breakthrough generating the natural logarithm was the result of a search for an expression of area against a rectangular hyperbola , and required the assimilation of a new function into standard mathematics.
Similarly, a logarithm is the inverse operation of exponentiation. Exponentiation is when a number b, the base, is raised to a certain power y, the exponent, to give a value x; this is denotedby=x.{\displaystyle b^{y}=x.} For example, raising 2to the power of 3gives 8: 23=8.{\displaystyle 2^{3}=8.}
While others had approached the idea of logarithms, notably Jost Bürgi, it was Napier who first published the concept, along with easily used precomputed tables, in his Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio.[1][2][3] Prior to the introduction of logarithms, high accuracy numerical calculations involving multiplication, division and root ...
Logarithmic scale. A logarithmic scale (or log scale) is a method used to display numerical data that spans a broad range of values, especially when there are significant differences between the magnitudes of the numbers involved. Unlike a linear scale where each unit of distance corresponds to the same increment, on a logarithmic scale each ...
Common logarithm. A graph of the common logarithm of numbers from 0.1 to 100. In mathematics, the common logarithm is the logarithm with base 10. [1] It is also known as the decadic logarithm and as the decimal logarithm, named after its base, or Briggsian logarithm, after Henry Briggs, an English mathematician who pioneered its use, as well as ...
Comparison of linear, concave, and convex functions when plotted using a linear scale (left) or a log scale (right). In science and engineering, a log–log graph or log–log plot is a two-dimensional graph of numerical data that uses logarithmic scales on both the horizontal and vertical axes. Power functions – relationships of the form ...
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, theories and theorems that are developed and proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many areas of mathematics, which include number theory (the study of numbers), algebra (the study of formulas and related structures), geometry (the study ...
William Oughtred (5 March 1574 – 30 June 1660), [1] also Owtred, Uhtred, etc., was an English mathematician and Anglican clergyman. [2] [3] [4] After John Napier discovered logarithms and Edmund Gunter created the logarithmic scales (lines, or rules) upon which slide rules are based, Oughtred was the first to use two such scales sliding by one another to perform direct multiplication and ...