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The natural logarithm of a number is its logarithm to the base of the mathematical constant e, which is an irrational and transcendental number approximately equal to 2.718 281 828 459. [1] The natural logarithm of x is generally written as ln x, log e x, or sometimes, if the base e is implicit, simply log x.
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.
Common logarithms (base 10), historically used in logarithm tables and slide rules, are a basic tool for measurement and computation in many areas of science and engineering; in these contexts log x still often means the base ten logarithm. [10] In mathematics log x usually means to the natural logarithm (base e).
He then called the logarithm, with this number as base, the natural logarithm. As noted by Howard Eves, "One of the anomalies in the history of mathematics is the fact that logarithms were discovered before exponents were in use." [16] Carl B. Boyer wrote, "Euler was among the first to treat logarithms as exponents, in the manner now so ...
Mathematical tables are lists of numbers showing the results of a calculation with varying arguments.Trigonometric tables were used in ancient Greece and India for applications to astronomy and celestial navigation, and continued to be widely used until electronic calculators became cheap and plentiful in the 1970s, in order to simplify and drastically speed up computation.
A logarithmic unit is a unit that can be used to express a quantity (physical or mathematical) on a logarithmic scale, that is, as being proportional to the value of a logarithm function applied to the ratio of the quantity and a reference quantity of the same type. The choice of unit generally indicates the type of quantity and the base of the ...
In mathematics, the natural logarithm of 2 is the unique real number argument such that the exponential function equals two. It appears regularly in various formulas and is also given by the alternating harmonic series. The decimal value of the natural logarithm of 2 (sequence A002162 in the OEIS) truncated at 30 decimal places is given by:
One part of this machine called an "endless spindle" allowed the mechanical expression of the relation = (+), [14] with the aim of extracting the logarithm of a sum as a sum of logarithms. A LNS has been used in the Gravity Pipe ( GRAPE-5 ) special-purpose supercomputer [ 15 ] that won the Gordon Bell Prize in 1999.