can you explain this to me? i'm not in algebra but i like to know stuff
Mathematicians invent operators for stuff they can't describe in other ways. When ancient mathematicians needed a way to describe a series of added numbers, they invented the multiplication operator. When mathematicians needed a way to describe a series of multiplied numbers, they invented the exponent.
One of the flaws of the exponent is say I'm given something like this:
3
2This is pretty easy to compute. Just 3*3 = 9
But let's say that we're given 9 and want to know what exponent on 3 we need to 'make' 9.
There's no intrinsic way of doing this besides dividing by 3 over and over, and even that falls apart when you're asked something like 10
x = 2384.281.
Hence the logarithm.
Ln(e) isn't 1, e is a button on your calculator, an infinite number kinda like Pi
-- it's the same process as LOG with Ln(e) except instead of putting 10 or what ever the base is, you put e^x
And in order to find this, you need a calculator or else you have to memorize a bunch of charts and table of values.
ignore this guy he has literally no idea what he's talking about