funlord
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are they equal?
The discussion revolves around the equality of natural logarithms and other logarithmic notations, particularly focusing on the interpretation of different logarithmic expressions and their notations. Participants explore the implications of using various notations and whether they convey the same mathematical meaning.
Participants do not reach a consensus on the equality of the logarithmic expressions. There are multiple competing views regarding the validity and interpretation of different logarithmic notations.
There are limitations in the discussion regarding the assumptions made about logarithmic notation and the context in which different bases are implied. The discussion also reflects a dependence on personal experiences with notation usage over time.
funlord said:View attachment 88026
are they equal?
Just for the record, I have never seen this notation -- ##^e\log y##. By "never" I mean in the past 55+ years. That's not to say that someone hasn't used it somewhere, but if so, it's certainly not in common usage. The notation ##\log_e y## is rarely used, since ##\ln y## is defined to mean log, base e, of y.BvU said:The first notation is to be avoided: there are already two notations for the base of a logarithm: ##^e\log y## and ##\log_e y## for ##\ln y## and this looks too much like a third notation for the same, which it is NOT.
I now miss how you DO write ##^4\log 16 = 2## ? With the rarely used notation ?Mark44 said:Just for the record, I have never seen this notation -- ##^e\log y##. By "never" I mean in the past 55+ years. That's not to say that someone hasn't used it somewhere, but if so, it's certainly not in common usage. The notation ##\log_e y## is rarely used, since ##\ln y## is defined to mean log, base e, of y.
If someone were to write ##\log^4 (x + 3)##, I would interpret this to mean the same as ##(\log(x + 3))^4## following the usual shorthand as used in powers of trig functions. I would also interpret the log base to be 10, but in some contexts the implied log base could be e or possibly 2, in computer science textbooks.