Maths in everyday life : Logarithms

The world of Mathematics is a fascinating one…each question is like a mystery that needs you to channelise your inner Sherlock and come up with the answer, exclaiming “Elementary!”  There are many tools it provides us with for this purpose. Possibly the most intriguing of them all are Logarithms…

At this stage, you might wonder “What??” How can a stupid Logarithm table be intriguing? But my sceptical friend, that’s where it’s charm and utility lies. You get these questions like calculation of the number of digits in a large number like 2¹⁰⁰.  Doing it manually can get frustrating. But using logarithms you can get the answer in no time. Logarithms, nowadays, are also used in search algorithms such as Google Search, Microsoft Bing, etc. So the next time you perform a Google search, make sure you thank your Log table book too!!

However, as we know, life is much more than this, and so is Maths. Maths is a manifestation of life, the easiest language to communicate with Nature. The medium of this communication is Logarithm. For example, earthquake magnitudes were originally based on the amplitude of ground motion displacement as measured by a standard seismograph. The best known of these is the Richter Magnitude.

ML = logA + 2.56logD – 1.67

Where A is the measured ground motion (in micrometers) and D is the distance from the event (in km). This is still used for measuring the magnitude of shallow events at distances less than 600 km.

Also, for the calculation of the loudness of sound, the decibel scales are used which involve logarithm. The basic formula for this is:

N_db = 10 log₁₀ (P₂/P₁)

Where:
N_db  is the ratio of the two power expressed in decibels
P₂ is the output power level
P₁ is the input power level

Hence, as you can see, Logarithms are used in so many places in our day to day life. By extension, Mathematics is not a mere dry subject, it’s possibly one of the building blocks of our Universe. We are surrounded by Mathematics. When we open our eyes and acknowledge this, we will fall in love with it.

This article has been written by Supratim C , a Quant faculty at T.I.M.E 

Do leave your thoughts on this article in the comments section of this post. Happy Reading !!!