Question

trying to understand logarithms. Anybody have insights/neat tricks for better understanding

Answer 1

I understand logarithms - not an expert but I know a little

Answer 2

Maybe this can help you.
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/logarithm-basics.navId-403857.html

Answer 3

How do you compare logarithmic growth to regular linear or exponential growth?

Answer 4

I think logarithmic growth is similar to exponential growth

Answer 5

remember always that they are exponents

Answer 6

If i were to think about logarithms as functions, how do they transform input?

Answer 7

also be able to switch from
\[b^x=y\] to \[\log_b(y)=x\] instantly

Answer 8

I'm actually trying to develop intuition for log/linear transformation, why it makes a curved function straight, etc.

Answer 9

My advice is to familiarize yourself with base 10 logs or common logs
Why?
It is intuitive.
If you see something has a base 10 logarithm of 3.1354942159 you at least have an idea that it is about a thousand.
Now let's say the natural log of a number is 3.1354942159
Can you make any rough guess at that number?

Answer 10

not intuitively. Looking at this i'd guess 30?

Answer 11

no. I mean 23. looked at wrong column

Answer 12

See what I mean about natural logs?
Back to base 10 logs, what is the log of the square root of 10?
The log is .5

Answer 13

LobeMath56 - so you'd agree that base 10 logs are more intuitive?

Answer 14

LoveMath56

Answer 15

so sqrrt of 10 = 10^(1/2), logbase10 of this is 1/2. I get the cancellling part

Answer 16

yes i'd say so

Answer 17

10^log x = x
10^.3010 (the log of 2) = 2

Answer 18

ahhh

Answer 19

And if I were to try to think of logs (base e or 10) as a single operation, is there a way to describe this intuitively?

Answer 20

but that does help wolf1728, thx for the help so far!!

Answer 21

shucks thank you
I'm not saying totally ignore natural logs - no
But if you had to pick a place to start I'd say base 10 logs gives you some idea about what is going on

Answer 22

Ok. I will review base 10. Thnks again

Answer 23

oh and thanks for the medal