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The natural logarithm of a number is its logarithm to the base of the mathematical constant e, which is an irrational and transcendental number approximately equal to 2.718 281 828 459. [1] 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.
Functions of the form ae x for constant a are the only functions that are equal to their derivative (by the Picard–Lindelöf theorem). Other ways of saying the same thing include: The slope of the graph at any point is the height of the function at that point. The rate of increase of the function at x is equal to the value of the function at x.
The number e is a mathematical constant approximately equal to 2.71828 that is the base of the natural logarithm and exponential function.It is sometimes called Euler's number, after the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler, though this can invite confusion with Euler numbers, or with Euler's constant, a different constant typically denoted .
Since e is an irrational number (see proof that e is irrational), it cannot be represented as the quotient of two integers, but it can be represented as a continued fraction. Using calculus, e may also be represented as an infinite series, infinite product, or other types of limit of a sequence.
The complex logarithm is the complex number analogue of the logarithm function. No single valued function on the complex plane can satisfy the normal rules for logarithms. However, a multivalued function can be defined which satisfies most of the identities. It is usual to consider this as a function defined on a Riemann surface.
The notation convention chosen here (with W 0 and W −1) follows the canonical reference on the Lambert W function by Corless, Gonnet, Hare, Jeffrey and Knuth. [3]The name "product logarithm" can be understood as follows: since the inverse function of f(w) = e w is termed the logarithm, it makes sense to call the inverse "function" of the product we w the "product logarithm".
Functional notation: if the first is the name (symbol) of a function, denotes the value of the function applied to the expression between the parentheses; for example, (), (+). In the case of a multivariate function , the parentheses contain several expressions separated by commas, such as f ( x , y ) {\displaystyle f(x,y)} .
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}} .