Wednesday, February 12, 2014

How can one change the base of logarithms?

We know that if  a^x = y, then log (a) y =
x.


Or if log (a) y = x, then a^x =
y.


Now how to change the base log (a) y = x to the base
b:


a^x = y.


Let b^c =  a which
implies log(b) a = c.


Then  a^x = y implies ( b^c)^x =
y.


b^cx = y implies log (b) y =
xc.


=>lg(b) y = xlog
(b)a.


=> log(b) y / log (b) a =
x.


Therefore if log(a) y = x, then  log(b) y / log (b) a =
x.


Example and
verification:


We know log (100) 100 00 00 = log(100) 100^3
= 3.


log (100) 1000000 = {log (10) 1000000}/log(10) 100 =
{log(10) 10^6}/ log (10) 10^2 = 6/2 = 3.

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