GERALD GONA TICKLE ME TO DEATH T.T.
TODAY! i kena rape. =.=. i shallnt say is who T_T. IDIOTS -.-.
I NOT SCARED OF ITCHNESS OK! lalalalala~ so no use xD. ahahahaha.
realli not scared =x
SOrry gerald, for not staying in sch =]. really sorry.
bought emaths assessment book also. thanks to ivan's recommendation. lol. interesting book. hahahahahaahahahahha. oops ._. laugh too much (jaw dropped)
In 1614, John Napier discovered the logarithm which made it possible to perform multiplications and divisions by addition and subtraction. (ie: a*b = 10^(log(a)+log(b)) and a/b = 10^(log(a)-log(b)).) This was a great time saver but there was still quite a lot of work required. The mathematician had to look up two logs, add them together and then look for the number whose log was the sum. Edmund Gunter soon reduced the effort by drawing a number line in which the positions of numbers were proportional to their logs. WTF -.-. lol. seems cool.
History of logarithm.
Joost Bürgi, a Swiss clockmaker in the employ of the Duke of Hesse-Kassel, first conceived of logarithms. The method of natural logarithms was first propounded in 1614, in a book entitled Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio, by John Napier, Baron of Merchiston in Scotland, four years after the publication of his memorable invention. This method contributed to the advance of science, and especially of astronomy, by making some difficult calculations possible. Prior to the advent of calculators and computers, it was used constantly in surveying, navigation, and other branches of practical mathematics. It supplanted the more involved prosthaphaeresis, which relied on trigonometric identities, as a quick method of computing products. Besides their usefulness in computation, logarithms also fill an important place in the higher theoretical mathematics.
At first, Napier called logarithms "artificial numbers" and antilogarithms "natural numbers". Later, Napier formed the word logarithm, a portmanteau, to mean a number that indicates a ratio: λoγoς (logos) meaning ratio, and αριθμoς (arithmos) meaning number. Napier chose that because the difference of two logarithms determines the ratio of the numbers for which they stand, so that an arithmetic series of logarithms corresponds to a geometric series of numbers. The term antilogarithm was introduced in the late 17th century and, while never used extensively in mathematics, persisted in collections of tables until they fell into disuse.
Napier did not use a base as we now understand it, but his logarithms were, up to a scaling factor, effectively to base 1/e. For interpolation purposes and ease of calculation, it is useful to make the ratio r in the geometric series close to 1. Napier chose r=1-10^{-7}=0.999999, and Bürgi chose r=1+10^{-4}=1.0001. Napier's original logarithms did not have log 1 = 0 but rather log 10^7 = 0. Thus if N is a number and L is its logarithm as calculated by Napier, N=10^7(1-10^{-7})^L. Since (1-10^{-7}) is approximately 1/e, L is approximately 10^7log_{1/e} N/10^7.
haahahhas. this is fun xD.
x33milktea
