Assignment 1

(PART 1)

Many students when using logarithms only memorize the rules, without fully understanding their concept.
The basic concept of logarithms can be expressed as a shortcut.
Multiplication is a shortcut for Addition: 3 x 5 means 5 + 5 + 5
Exponents are a shortcut for Multiplication: 4^3 means 4 x 4 x 4
Logarithms are a shortcut for Exponents: 10^2 = 100
Many people throughout time have been accredited with the production and development of logarithms.
However, there is one man who is responsible for the invention of the logarithm. That man is the Scotsman,
John Napier.
John Napier was a very famous mathematician of his time and he was born in 1550 in Edinburgh, Scotland.
His father was Sir Archibald Napier. He was very bright and he got admitted in the University of St. Andrews
only when he was thirteen years old. Napier came back to his homeland by 1571 and got married to
Elizabeth Stirling the very next year. At the castle of Gartnes, Napier had enough time to explore his
interests in the field of religious politics, agriculture and mathematics.
Napier only considered the study of mathematics as a hobby. Unlike the logarithms used today, Napiers
original logarithms are to base 1/e and involve a constant (10^7). Napier defined his logarithms as a ratio of
two distances in a geometric form, as opposed to the current definition of logarithms as exponents. He
coined a term from the two ancient Greek terms logos, meaning proportion, and arithmos, meaning number;
compounding them to produce the word logarithm. What was Napiers purpose for inventing this system?
He developed this shortcut to save astronomers time and limit "slippery errors" of calculations. He described
a method of multiplication using rods with numbers marked off on them. This was the earliest form of
mechanical calculation and the forerunner of our modern day calculator.
In math, he made remarkable discoveries that were accurate and were accepted all over the world. His
technique of calculation of log got published in 1614.The technique was found to be really accurate that his
work was translated into different languages and also widely printed. It helped in the trigonometric
calculations in astronomy and navigation. His work about the computation of logarithm in was published
even after his death.
A copy of Napiers work of 1614 was sent to a professor of Gresham College, Henry Briggs. Briggs made
Napiers method even easier by setting log of 1 at zero. Napier agreed with it but left the responsibility of
setting up the new logarithm table by Briggs plan on Briggs. It was published in 1624 and was called table
of common logarithms.
For more than twenty years, Napier worked on a very complex that held a great value to physical
science. A device named Napiers rods or bones shows creativeness of his mind in the field of
mathematics. Many mathematical functions like multiplication and division could be done mechanically.

Assignment 1

(PART 2)

INDICES
An indice is a number with a power; for example am where a is called the base and m is the power. The
power is also often referred to as the index or exponent. Indices rules only apply when the base is the
same for all terms.

Ex. 1

Ex. 2

LOGARITHMS
The power to which a base, such as 10, must be raised to produce a given number.
For example,

log 100 = 2
because

102 = 100
This is an example of a base-ten logarithm. We call it a base ten logarithm because ten is the number that is
raised to a power. There are logarithms using different base units. If you wanted, you could use two as a
base unit.

log2 8 = 3
because

23 = 8
In general, you write log followed by the base number as a subscript. The most common logarithms are
base 10 logarithms and natural logarithms; they have special notations.
A base ten log is written as

log

a base ten logarithmic equation is usually written in the form:

log a = r

A natural logarithm is written as

ln

A natural logarithmic equation is usually written in the form:

ln a = r

So, when you see log by itself, it means base ten log. When you see ln, it means natural logarithm.