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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.
ln(r) is the standard natural logarithm of the real number r. Arg(z) is the principal value of the arg function; its value is restricted to (−π, π]. It can be computed using Arg(x + iy) = atan2(y, x). Log(z) is the principal value of the complex logarithm function and has imaginary part in the range (−π, π].
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 refers to the natural logarithm (base e). [11]
The 19 degree pages from Napier's 1614 table of logarithms of trigonometric functions Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio. The term Napierian logarithm or Naperian logarithm, named after John Napier, is often used to mean the natural logarithm. Napier did not introduce this natural logarithmic function, although it is named after him.
The first such distribution found is π(N) ~ N / log(N) , where π(N) is the prime-counting function (the number of primes less than or equal to N) and log(N) is the natural logarithm of N. This means that for large enough N , the probability that a random integer not greater than N is prime is very close to 1 / log( N ) .
Logarithmic growth is the inverse of exponential growth and is very slow. [2] A familiar example of logarithmic growth is a number, N, in positional notation, which grows as log b (N), where b is the base of the number system used, e.g. 10 for decimal arithmetic. [3] In more advanced mathematics, the partial sums of the harmonic series
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.
It can also be useful when applied to functions raised to the power of variables or functions. Logarithmic differentiation relies on the chain rule as well as properties of logarithms (in particular, the natural logarithm, or the logarithm to the base e) to transform products into sums and divisions into subtractions.