A logarithm is the power to which a number must be raised in order to get some other number. For example, the base ten logarithm of 100 is 2, because ten raised to the power of two is 100: Log 100 = 2, because 102 = 100
This is an example of a base-ten logarithm. We call it a base ten logarithm because ten is the number that is raised to a power. The base unit is the number being raised to a power. There are logarithms using different base units. If you wanted, you could use two as a base unit. For instance, the base two logarithm of eight is three, because two raised to the power of three equals eight:
Log2 8 = 3, because 23 = 8
In general, you write log followed by the base number as a subscript. The most common logarithms are base 10 logarithms and natural logarithms; they have special notations.
So, when you see log by itself, it means base ten log. When you see ln, it means natural logarithm.
Exponential equation:
An exponential equation is one in which a variable occurs in the exponent terms of the same base can be solved using the property: If the bases are the same, set the exponents equal. If you can express both sides of the equation as powers of the same base, you can set the exponents equal to solve for x.
Applications for Logarithmic and Exponential Equations:
Earthquake word problems:
As with any word problem, the trick is convert a narrative statement or question to a mathematical statement.
Before we start, let's talk about earthquakes and how we measure their intensity.
In 1935 Charles Richter defined the magnitude of an earthquake to be
where I is the intensity of the earthquake (measured by the amplitude of a seismograph reading taken 100 km from the epicenter of the earthquake) and S is the intensity of a ''standard earthquake'' (whose amplitude is 1 micron =10-4 cm).
The magnitude of a standard earthquake is
Richter studied many earthquakes that occurred between 1900 and 1950. The largest had magnitude of 8.9 on the Richter scale, and the smallest had magnitude 0. This corresponds to a ratio of intensities of 800,000,000, so the Richter scale provides more manageable numbers to work with.
Each number increase on the Richter scale indicates an intensity ten times stronger. For example, an earthquake of magnitude 6 is ten times stronger than an earthquake of magnitude 5. An earthquake of magnitude 7 is times strong than an earthquake of magnitude 5. An earthquake of magnitude 8 is times stronger than an earthquake of magnitude 5.
Example 1: Early