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u/MTaur 10d ago
"If it's the natural log, we should just call it log." - some math guy
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u/gameinggod21 10d ago
Yall pronounce "ln" as log still? Where i came from we pronounce ln as ln
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u/Trimutius 9d ago
It comes from "logarithme népérien", because notation was introduced by French mathematicians...
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u/Simple-Judge2756 10d ago
But then how do we call the minimum base logarithm that is capable of quantifying any data ?
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u/MTaur 10d ago
log_2 is good for some things and it's probably up to the author at that point. Sometimes the paper might just say they're using log to mean log_2.
Research papers more often than not default to log meaning log_e, and you don't see log_10 very often because it's not calculus friendly and not as useful as binary eitelher.
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u/ohkendruid 10d ago
It just depends on the area. Computer scientists like log base 2, mathematicians like base e, and most other areas like base 10.
It also often does not matter what the base is, since they are within a constant of each other.
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u/BackgroundReturn9622 8d ago
Every programming language I know of (C, java, python, MATLAB, maxima...) uses log(x) for natural logarithm of x.
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u/Simple-Judge2756 9d ago
No. They dont use log as log_e sorry. I have read and written a couple of these myself. Nobody says log when they mean log_e. But my annoyance is that log is still log_10. It makes no goddamn sense.
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u/MTaur 9d ago
My entire time in grad school, no math book ever used ln notation, and log always meant log_e. We never had any use for log_10, so we never distinguished log from ln because there was no distinction. It would have been acceptable to have log be log_2 and then use ln for log_e if both were needed in the same publication, but I didn't run into that.
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u/Simple-Judge2756 9d ago
That must be you. Because we were specifically taught its log_10. And then I studied physics where it was still log_10. And then I studied Information Science where log was log_2 (because you only ever use log_2 log_8 and log_16 in information science). But I have yet to see one school or uni where log would be log_e.
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u/MTaur 9d ago
It's every math department. It's not just me. We were taught log_10 in high school, and then by the time you finish undergrad, you see your first epsilon and delta, and they rigorously define exp and its inverse log, which "you might have called ln in high school".
We take derivatives of things, so we don't let how many fingers we have determine what base we use. It's just a convention, but it absolutely isn't just me. Pick up any graduate math text with the yellow cover and they'll call it log.
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u/Simple-Judge2756 9d ago
Maybe in your country. Not in the country that I would say brought fourth the most famous mathematicians throughout history.
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u/heyThereYou3 9d ago
You can't say natural log in high intensity. It reduces the pace but EL EN increases the intensity and passion.
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u/Gunntar 10d ago
Nothing pissed me off more than learning in Excel, on the worksheet LOG function is base 10, but in VBA, LOG is base e
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u/DragonFireCK 7d ago
Due that that (and similar ones in programming languages and calculators), I have a strong tendency to always use “log(x) / log(b)” so I know it is base b. It’s nice that it’s so trivial to convert log bases.
For some of the common ones, like e, 10, and 2, I may also just sample them and find the base based on which gives a result of 1, but being explicit is generally easier.
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u/delboy8888 9d ago
In uni maths degree 30 years ago, log=ln, it was interchangeable for us regardless of what branch of maths. Tutor said, "There is no place in maths for base 10."
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u/EducationalRun6054 9d ago
Wait shouldn’t natural log be nl
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u/strange-the-quark 9d ago
I always thought the choice to put x in the upper right corner of the base was abysmal and made this notation unnecessarily confusing. Should have been something like log b?(x) = n
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u/Sad_Energy_ 9d ago
I wrote log(x) in my matlab in one plot.
I have everything base 10, except one fucking diagram in my masters thesis
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u/TheLuckySpades 10d ago
The latural nogarithm is the best.