Lesson 31: Logarithms

The lesson begins with an application problem to motivate the necessity and use of a logarithm. The formal definition linking logs and exponents is then introduced. Exercises in writing exponential equations as logarithms follows before a calculator based method for approximating logarithmic values is discussed. The common log, i.e. logs of base \(10\), is introduced and a procedure for solving common log equations with a calculator is presented, along with various caveats about proper syntax for the calculator. The lesson concludes with exponential modeling problems where logs may be employed to find the desired exponent.