Logarithms, Explained - Steve Kelly
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/steve-kelly-logarithms-explained What are logarithms and why are they useful? Get the basics on these critical ...
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How does the difference between point 0000000398 and point 00000000398 cause one to have red eyes after swimming? To answer this, we first need a way of dealing with rather small numbers, or in some cases extremely large numbers. This leads us to the concept of logarithms. Well, what are logarithms? Let's take the base number, b, and raise it to a power, p, like 2 to the 3rd power, and have it equal a number n. We get an exponential equation: b raised to the p power, equals n. In our example, that'd be 2 raised to the 3rd power, equals 8. The exponent p is said to be the logarithm of the number n. Most of the time this would be written: "log, base b, of a number equals p, the power." This is starting to sound a bit confusing with all the variables, so let's ...
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How does the difference between point 0000000398 and point 00000000398 cause one to have red eyes after swimming? To answer this, we first need a way of dealing with rather small numbers, or in some cases extremely large numbers. This leads us to the concept of logarithms. Well, what are logarithms? Let's take the base number, b, and raise it to a power, p, like 2 to the 3rd power, and have it equal a number n. We get an exponential equation: b raised to the p power, equals n. In our example, that'd be 2 raised to the 3rd power, equals 8. The exponent p is said to be the logarithm of the number n. Most of the time this would be written: "log, base b, of a number equals p, the power." This is starting to sound a bit confusing with all the variables, so let's ...
