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In mathematics, the logarithm of a number is the exponent by which another fixed value, the base, must be raised to produce that number.For example, the logarithm of 1000 to base 10 is 3, because 1000 is 10 to the 3 rd power: 1000 = 10 3 = 10 × 10 × 10.
Logarithms can be used to make calculations easier. For example, two numbers can be multiplied just by using a logarithm table and adding. These are often known as logarithmic properties, which are documented in the table below. [2] The first three operations below assume that x = b c and/or y = b d, so that log b (x) = c and log b (y) = d.
The formula was first discovered by Abraham de Moivre [2] in the form ! [] +. De Moivre gave an approximate rational-number expression for the natural logarithm of the constant. Stirling's contribution consisted of showing that the constant is precisely 2 π {\displaystyle {\sqrt {2\pi }}} .
At first the reaction to Saint-Vincent's hyperbolic logarithm was a continuation of studies of quadrature as in Christiaan Huygens (1651) [10] and James Gregory (1667). [11] Subsequently, an industry of making logarithms arose as "logaritmotechnia", the title of works by Nicholas Mercator (1668), [12] Euclid Speidell (1688), [13] and John Craig ...
The logarithm function is not defined for zero, so log probabilities can only represent non-zero probabilities. Since the logarithm of a number in (,) interval is negative, often the negative log probabilities are used. In that case the log probabilities in the following formulas would be inverted.
The following is a list of integrals (antiderivative functions) of logarithmic functions. For a complete list of integral functions, see list of integrals. Note: x > 0 is assumed throughout this article, and the constant of integration is omitted for simplicity.
Graph showing ratio of the prime-counting function π(x) to two of its approximations, x / log x and Li(x). As x increases (note x-axis is logarithmic), both ratios tend towards 1. The ratio for x / log x converges from above very slowly, while the ratio for Li(x) converges more quickly from below.
An important property of base-10 logarithms, which makes them so useful in calculations, is that the logarithm of numbers greater than 1 that differ by a factor of a power of 10 all have the same fractional part. The fractional part is known as the mantissa. [b] Thus, log tables need only show the fractional part. Tables of common logarithms ...