5/19/14

Back to Napier!

By the way, Annis and I are collaborating! :D
You probably figured out this post is about John Napier, but he's a good mathematician. Today, you'll learn about his invention of logarithms!! A logarithm is a quantity representing the power in which a base must be raised to in order to produce another number. The formula is log b( x). Well, it doesn't look like that because the b is below log and x. Anyways, the b is base and the x is the number to be produced. For example, log 3 (9) is 2 because 3 to the power of 2 or 3 squared is 9! Get it??
Well, there is also what is called common logs. Common logs are regular logarithms just by 10s. So, the equation for common logs is log x. So, log 100 is 2 because 10 squared is 100.  Now, you might just be thinking, why the heck do I need logarithms because they seem ridiculous.When they were invented, they were used to calculate big and long numbers because they didn't have calculators, which is really funny because Napier helped invent the calculator. Now, they are used to calculate pH scales, the Richter scale, and astronomers use logarithms too. Engineers use logarithms.
Logarithms are everywhere!
You might be thinking at this point, logarithms seem to be similar to exponents. Well, not exactly. Exponents of a number says how many times that number is multiplying itself. Logarithms are the opposite. It asks the question, what exponent produced this number?
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P.S: I how you enjoy our recent collaborations,because we might just have more!!