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Graph of log 2 x as a function of a positive real number x. In mathematics, the binary logarithm (log 2 n) is the power to which the number 2 must be raised to obtain the value n. That is, for any real number x, = =.
The graph of the logarithm base 2 crosses the x-axis at x = 1 and passes through the points (2, 1), (4, 2), and (8, 3), depicting, e.g., log 2 (8) = 3 and 2 3 = 8. The graph gets arbitrarily close to the y-axis, but does not meet it. Addition, multiplication, and exponentiation are three of the most fundamental arithmetic operations.
In a third layer, the logarithms of rational numbers r = a / b are computed with ln(r) = ln(a) − ln(b), and logarithms of roots via ln n √ c = 1 / n ln(c).. The logarithm of 2 is useful in the sense that the powers of 2 are rather densely distributed; finding powers 2 i close to powers b j of other numbers b is comparatively easy, and series representations of ln(b) are ...
The identities of logarithms can be used to approximate large numbers. Note that log b (a) + log b (c) = log b (ac), where a, b, and c are arbitrary constants. Suppose that one wants to approximate the 44th Mersenne prime, 2 32,582,657 −1. To get the base-10 logarithm, we would multiply 32,582,657 by log 10 (2), getting 9,808,357.09543 ...
It may also refer to the binary (base 2) logarithm in the context of computer science, particularly in the context of time complexity. Generally, the notation for the logarithm to base b of a number x is shown as log b x. So the log of 8 to the base 2 would be log 2 8 = 3.
Unlike a linear scale where each unit of distance corresponds to the same increment, on a logarithmic scale each unit of length is a multiple of some base value raised to a power, and corresponds to the multiplication of the previous value in the scale by the base value. In common use, logarithmic scales are in base 10 (unless otherwise specified).
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The log base 2 can be used to anticipate whether a multiplication will overflow, since ⌈log 2 (xy)⌉ ≤ ⌈log 2 (x)⌉ + ⌈log 2 (y)⌉. [53] Count leading zeros and count trailing zeros can be used together to implement Gosper's loop-detection algorithm, [54] which can find the period of a function of finite range using limited resources ...