Staff

Please select a resource from the list below.

Quick Reference

• Indicial equations
  An indicial equation is one in which the power is unknown. Such equations often occur in the calculation of compound interest.
• Logarithms
  We use logarithms to write expressions involving powers in a different form. If you can work confidently with powers, you should have no problems handling logarithms
• The exponential constant e
  The letter e is used in many mathematical calculations to stand for a particular number known as the exponential constant. This leaflet provides information about this important constant, and the related exponential function.
• The laws of logarithms
  There are a number of rules known as the laws of logarithms. These allow expressions involving logarithms to be rewritten in a variety of different ways. The laws apply to logarithms of any base, but the same base must be used throughout a calculation.

Teach Yourself

• Logarithms
  This booklet explains what is meant by a logarithm. It states and illustrates the laws of llogarithms. It explains the standard bases 10 and e. Finally it shows how logarithms can be used to solve certain types of equations.

Test Yourself

• Diagnostic Test - Logarithms
  Diagnostic test for logs and logarithms
• Exercise - Logarithms
  Online exercise for logarithms

Video

A transcript of each video should be available in the Teach Yourself section above.

(This site uses Windows Media technologies from Microsoft to deliver video streams. Streaming facilities are kindly provided by University of Portsmouth Creative Technologies, http://stream.port.ac.uk)

These videos require Windows Media Player (v10).

Please note: You may experience trouble with more recent upgrades to Internet Explorer (now v.7) and Media Player (now v.11). These no longer support streaming from the mms servers used by mathcentre, so we are recommending that you uninstall IE7 (IE6 lies underneath) and replace the new version of WMP with the fully functioning v.10 (you may need to find a download via google after uninstalling v.11). All those that have done this have reported back that everything is working again.

• Logarithms
  Logarithms appear in all sorts of calculations in engineering and science, business and economics. Before the days of calculators they were used to assist in the process of multiplication by replacing the operation of multiplication by addition. Similarly, they enabled the operation of division to be replaced by subtraction. They remain important in other ways, one of which is that they provide the underlying theory of the logarithm function. This has applications in many fields, for example, the decibel scale in acoustics. (Mathtutor Video Tutorial)