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> who told you that log() denotes log_e. Maybe in your narrow environment This is a nearly universal convention in modern mathematics (except a few niches like
by jacobolus 4y ago
> who told you that log() denotes log_e. Maybe in your narrow environment
This is a nearly universal convention in modern mathematics (except a few niches like information theory and computational complexity theory where it means log base 2, which is usually clear from context).
Engineering disciplines used to use "common" logarithms (i.e. base ten) all over the place back when most calculations were done with slide rules, lookups in paper tables, and pen-and-paper arithmetic, but with the advent of computers multiplication is just as cheap as addition, and expressing things on log scales is less necessary.
Over time the mathematicians are winning the fight to define the symbol 'log'.
- bmacho 4y agohttps://www.google.com/search?q=log(10) https://www.google.com/search?q=log(10)
- jacobolus 4y agoYes, Google in this context is a glorified pocket calculator, and follows the convention from the slide rule era. But if you find log in a mathematics paper it almost surely means the natural log.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- bmacho 4y agoPlease read back what GGP claimed, and I replied.
- jacobolus 4y agoYes, this whole thread repeatedly describes the context as “mathematics”, in which context log unambiguously means the natural log.
- bmacho 4y agoWell, both the Wolfram MathWorld and the EMS prefers log_e = ln, and log = log_10: https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Logarithm.html https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Logarithm.html https://mathworld.wolfram.com/CommonLogarithm.html https://mathworld.wolfram.com/CommonLogarithm.html https://encyclopediaofmath.org/wiki/Logarithmic_function https://encyclopediaofmath.org/wiki/Logarithmic_function https://encyclopediaofmath.org/wiki/Logarithm_of_a_number https://encyclopediaofmath.org/wiki/Logarithm_of_a_number . Also me, and the other commenter below learned "ln" for the natural logarithm, and used "log" only for binary/decimal logarithm. I am starting to think that log = log_e is actually the minority usage, but it is certainly not universal.