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Re: napier and logarithms
From: Michael Dorl
Date: 2009 May 28, 08:16 -0500
From: Michael Dorl
Date: 2009 May 28, 08:16 -0500
corallina wrote: > I finished reading "The Story of Numbers" by John McLeish > chapter 12 is about Napier. Unfortunately there is no mention > of Briggs. > > On page 171 there is a description of how Napier calculated the logarithm > of 2. He raised 2 to the power of 10,000 which comes out to a > number of 3011 places. He then subtract 1 from 3011 and gets 3010 > which is the logarithm of two good to 4 decimal places. log10(2) = 0.3010 > I really don't understand why this works and hope somebody can > explain it? > log (2**10000) = log ((10**0.30103)**10000) = log(10**3010.3)=3010.3 I still recall my calculus teacher telling us how he remembers log 2. He thought of it as the ears, nose, and eyes of a face. You have to reverse the right ear though. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Navigation List archive: www.fer3.com/arc To post, email NavList@fer3.com To , email NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
