# Adding and subtracting logs with different bases in a relationship

### Evaluating logarithms (advanced) (video) | Khan Academy

Logarithms may be defined and introduced in several different ways. out of a desire to simplify multiplication and division to the level of addition and subtraction. The base numbers must be the same, as in the first case, where we used 2. Logarithms can be used to solve equations such as 2x = 3, for x. In senior 1: To multiply powers with the same base, add the indices. aman = am+n. 2: To divide powers with the same base, subtract the indices. = am − n, (provided m > n.) .. The relationship connecting logarithms and powers is: x = loga y means y = ax. A Logarithm says how many of one number to multiply to get another number well together because they "undo" each other (so long as the base "a" is the.

### logarithm | Rules, Examples, & Formulas | cypenv.info

People noticed that multiplying or dividing two numbers in the geometric progression corresponds to adding or subtracting the corresponding numbers in the arithmetic progression. To us, these are just the laws of exponentiation again, as numbers in the geometric progression are powers of 2, and the numbers in the arithmetic progression are the corresponding exponents.

This seemed to offer a way of making calculations easier, as you could replace the harder operations in the geometric progression with easier ones in the arithmetic progression. Napier wanted to produce a table that related numbers in a useful geometric progression to numbers in a corresponding arithmetic progression so that, as he wrote, "All multiplications, divisions and [ The closer to the point gets, the slower it gets, so it will never actually reach.

How do you link that to an arithmetic progression?

Intuitively, imagine marking the locations of at each time interval on the line: Then since is continually slowing down, the intervals become smaller as gets larger. And since never reaches its destination, there are infinitely many such intervals. Now imagine stretching these intervals out so they all have equal length, but also imagine that still takes a second to traverse each of them.

This would move the point all the way out to infinity there are infinitely many intervals of equal lengththe average speed of in an interval would be the same for all intervals all intervals have equal length, which traverses in one secondand the sequence of distances travelled after one second, two seconds, three seconds, and so on, would form an arithmetic progression.

Using, presumably, this sort of intuitive reasoning, Napier imagined a second pointwhich starts out at point at the same time as and with the same speed, but travelling at uniform speed towards and beyond and to infinity. At a given point in time, he defined the distance already travelled by to be the logarithm of the distance yet to travel by.

Napier took the length of the line segment from to to be very large: He also assumed that the initial speed of is. Today we would use calculus to work out Napier's logarithm.

Logarithms can also be converted between any positive bases except that 1 cannot be used as the base since all of its powers are equal to 1as shown in the table of logarithmic laws. Only logarithms for numbers between 0 and 10 were typically included in logarithm tables.

To obtain the logarithm of some number outside of this range, the number was first written in scientific notation as the product of its significant digits and its exponential power—for example, would be written as 3.

Then the logarithm of the significant digits—a decimal fraction between 0 and 1, known as the mantissa—would be found in a table. For example, to find the logarithm ofone would look up log 3.

• Logarithmic Properties
• Exponentials & logarithms
• Evaluating logarithms (advanced)

In the example of a number with a negative exponent, such as 0. History of logarithms The invention of logarithms was foreshadowed by the comparison of arithmetic and geometric sequences.

### Simplification of different base logarithms - Mathematics Stack Exchange

Note that a geometric sequence can be written in terms of its common ratio; for the example geometric sequence given above: Thus, multiplication is transformed into addition. The original comparison between the two series, however, was not based on any explicit use of the exponential notation; this was a later development.

The Scottish mathematician John Napier published his discovery of logarithms in His purpose was to assist in the multiplication of quantities that were then called sines. The whole sine was the value of the side of a right-angled triangle with a large hypotenuse.

## The making of the logarithm

His definition was given in terms of relative rates. The logarithme, therefore, of any sine is a number very neerely expressing the line which increased equally in the meene time whiles the line of the whole sine decreased proportionally into that sine, both motions being equal timed and the beginning equally shift.

In cooperation with the English mathematician Henry BriggsNapier adjusted his logarithm into its modern form. For the Naperian logarithm the comparison would be between points moving on a graduated straight line, the L point for the logarithm moving uniformly from minus infinity to plus infinity, the X point for the sine moving from zero to infinity at a speed proportional to its distance from zero.