9/4/2020 Calculus I - Logarithm Functions

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Paul
August 27, 2020

Section 1-8 : Logarithm Functions

In this section we’ll take a look at a function that is related to the exponential functions we looked
at in the last section. We will look at logarithms in this section. Logarithms are one of the
functions that students fear the most. The main reason for this seems to be that they simply have
never really had to work with them. Once they start working with them, students come to realize
that they aren’t as bad as they first thought.

We’ll start with b > 0, b ≠ 1 just as we did in the last section. Then we have

y = log bx is equivalent to x = by

The first is called logarithmic form and the second is called the exponential form. Remembering
this equivalence is the key to evaluating logarithms. The number, b, is called the base.

Let's do some quick evaluations.

Example 1 Without a calculator give the exact value of each of the following logarithms.
(a) log 216

(b) log 416

(c) log 5625

1
(d) log 9 531441

(e) log 1 36
6

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(f) log 3 8
2

To quickly evaluate logarithms the easiest thing to do is to convert the logarithm to exponential
form. So, let’s take a look at the first one.

(a) log 216 Show Solution 

(b) log 416 Show Solution 

(c) log 5625 Show Solution 

1
(d) log 9 531441 Show Solution 

(e) log 1 36 Show Solution 

6

27
(r) log 3 8 Show Solution 
2

There are a couple of special logarithms that arise in many places. These are,

lnx = log ex This log is called the natural logarithm

logx = log 10x This log is called the common logarithm

In the natural logarithm the base e is the same number as in the natural exponential logarithm
that we saw in the last section. Here is a sketch of both of these logarithms.

From this graph we can get a couple of very nice properties about the natural logarithm that we
will use many times in this and later Calculus courses.

lnx → ∞ as x → ∞
lnx → − ∞ as x → 0, x > 0

Let’s take a look at a couple of more logarithm evaluations. Some of which deal with the natural
or common logarithm and some of which don’t.
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Example 2 Without a calculator give the exact value of each of the following logarithms.
3
(a) ln √e

(b) log1000
(c) log 1616

(d) log 231

7
(e) log 2 √32

These work exactly the same as previous example so we won’t put in too many details.
3
(a) ln √e Show Solution 

(b) log1000 Show Solution 

(c) log 1616 Show Solution 

(d) log 231 Show Solution 

7
(e) log 2 √32 Show Solution 

This last set of examples leads us to some of the basic properties of logarithms.

Properties

1. The domain of the logarithm function is (0, ∞). In other words, we can only plug positive
numbers into a logarithm! We can’t plug in zero or a negative number.
2. The range of the logarithm function is (− ∞, ∞).
3. log bb = 1
4. log b1 = 0
5. log bb x = x

6. b log bx = x

The last two properties will be especially useful in the next section. Notice as well that these last
two properties tell us that,

f(x) = b x and g(x) = log bx

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are inverses of each other.

Here are some more properties that are useful in the manipulation of logarithms.

More Properties

7. log bxy = log bx + log by

8. log b
x
y() = log bx − log by

( )
9. log b x r = rlog bx

Note that there is no equivalent property to the first two for sums and differences. In other words,

log b(x + y) ≠ log bx + log by

log b(x − y) ≠ log bx − log by

Example 3 Write each of the following in terms of simpler logarithms.

(a) lnx 3y 4z 5

(b) log 3
( )
9x 4
√y

(c) log
( )
x2 + y2
(x − y) 3

What the instructions really mean here is to use as many of the properties of logarithms as we
can to simplify things down as much as we can.

(a) lnx 3y 4z 5 Show Solution 

(b) log 3
( )
9x 4
√y
Show Solution 

(c) log
( )x2 + y2
(x − y) 3
Show Solution 

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The last topic that we need to look at in this section is the change of base formula for logarithms.
The change of base formula is,

log ax
log bx =
log ab

This is the most general change of base formula and will convert from base b to base a. However,
the usual reason for using the change of base formula is to compute the value of a logarithm that
is in a base that you can’t easily deal with. Using the change of base formula means that you can
write the logarithm in terms of a logarithm that you can deal with. The two most common change
of base formulas are

lnx logx
log bx = and log bx =
lnb logb

In fact, often you will see one or the other listed as THE change of base formula!

In the first part of this section we computed the value of a few logarithms, but we could do these
without the change of base formula because all the arguments could be written in terms of the
base to a power. For instance,

log 749 = 2 because 7 2 = 49

However, this only works because 49 can be written as a power of 7! We would need the change
of base formula to compute log 750.

ln50 3.91202300543
log 750 = = = 2.0103821378
ln7 1.94591014906

OR

log50 1.69897000434
log 750 = = = 2.0103821378
log7 0.845098040014

So, it doesn’t matter which we use, we will get the same answer regardless of the logarithm that
we use in the change of base formula.

Note as well that we could use the change of base formula on log 749 if we wanted to as well.

ln49 3.89182029811
log 749 = = =2
ln7 1.94591014906

This is a lot of work however, and is probably not the best way to deal with this.

So, in this section we saw how logarithms work and took a look at some of the properties of
logarithms. We will run into logarithms on occasion so make sure that you can deal with them
when we do run into them.

© 2003 - 2020 Paul Dawkins Page Last Modified : 2/26/2019

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