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The logarithm is denoted "log b x" (pronounced as "the logarithm of x to base b", "the base-b logarithm of x", or most commonly "the log, base b, of x "). An equivalent and more succinct definition is that the function log b is the inverse function to the function x ↦ b x {\displaystyle x\mapsto b^{x}} .
In mathematics, logarithmic growth describes a phenomenon whose size or cost can be described as a logarithm function of some input. e.g. y = C log (x). Any logarithm base can be used, since one can be converted to another by multiplying by a fixed constant. [1] Logarithmic growth is the inverse of exponential growth and is very slow. [2]
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. [2] [3] Parentheses are sometimes added for clarity, giving ln(x), log e (x), or log(x). This is done particularly when the argument to the logarithm is not a single symbol, so as to prevent ambiguity.
The identities of logarithms can be used to approximate large numbers. Note that log b (a) + log b (c) = log b (ac), where a, b, and c are arbitrary constants. Suppose that one wants to approximate the 44th Mersenne prime, 2 32,582,657 −1. To get the base-10 logarithm, we would multiply 32,582,657 by log 10 (2), getting 9,808,357.09543 ...
A log–linear (sometimes log–lin) plot has the logarithmic scale on the y-axis, and a linear scale on the x-axis; a linear–log (sometimes lin–log) is the opposite. The naming is output–input ( y – x ), the opposite order from ( x , y ).
The mathematical notation for using the common logarithm is log(x), [4] log 10 (x), [5] or sometimes Log(x) with a capital L; [a] on calculators, it is printed as "log", but mathematicians usually mean natural logarithm (logarithm with base e ≈ 2.71828) rather than common logarithm when writing "log".
If p is a probability, then p/(1 − p) is the corresponding odds; the logit of the probability is the logarithm of the odds, i.e.: = = = = (). The base of the logarithm function used is of little importance in the present article, as long as it is greater than 1, but the natural logarithm with base e is the one most often used.
The prime number theorem then states that x / log x is a good approximation to π(x) (where log here means the natural logarithm), in the sense that the limit of the quotient of the two functions π(x) and x / log x as x increases without bound is 1: