My Math Forum Logarithms, what are they?

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 June 21st, 2010, 05:39 PM #1 Newbie   Joined: May 2010 Posts: 23 Thanks: 0 Logarithms, what are they? I know all the properties of a logarithm, how it is defined, what it is used for. But I have yet to find, or have anyone tell me, what a logarithm is. $log_43$ I could easly enter this into a calculator, or estimate it on paper. But how do I do this without estimation, without a calculator or table, just my mind and a pen. And how do I derive that method? And how where logarithms originally defined? I know there must have been much more rigor and understanding in the original explanations.
 June 21st, 2010, 07:57 PM #2 Senior Member   Joined: Aug 2008 From: Blacksburg VA USA Posts: 353 Thanks: 7 Math Focus: primes of course Re: Logarithms, what are they? Try this hit off of Google: http://cnx.org/content/m18236/latest/. As far as derivation, it is just an inverse operation like add/subtract or multiply/divide. If the log is the inverse of raising to an exponent, then if A=10^B, then log(A)=B. 100=10^2, so log(100)=2. That's the extent of what I can speak to.

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