Log Law: Change Base Explained w/Example

  • Context: High School 
  • Thread starter Thread starter dilan
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Base Law Log
Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
1 reply · 14K views
dilan
Messages
72
Reaction score
0
Hi,
I am just a little confused with this log law of change base. Is there anyone who can give me a clear description with an example?:smile:
Thanks
 
Mathematics news on Phys.org
Let a,b>0, and distinct from 1 be the respective bases, and let c be an arbitrary positive number.

Then, you evidently have:
[tex]c=a^{log_{a}(c)}=b^{log_{b}(c)[/tex]
Taking the logarithm with respect to a on both sides, you get:
[tex]\log_{a}(c)=\log_{b}(c)\log_{a}(b)[/tex]
that is:
[tex]log_{b}(c)=\frac{log_{a}(c)}{log_{a}(b)}[/tex]
Was that what you're after?