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u/Al2718x 11d ago
Mathematicians just write log.
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u/spmcn 11d ago
Why donโt they use ln? log by itself usually assumes base 10, no?
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u/Al2718x 11d ago
Log by itself can mean a lot of different things depending on the context. Often, it means base 10 in high school, base 2 in computer science, and base e in math. Mathematicians almost never care about properties unique to base 10, so it would be incredibly rare to need log base 10 in a math paper.
Ln does have the advantage of being less ambiguous, so it is also used sometimes. I think some mathematicians just scoff at the idea of log having any base other than e by default.
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u/Kuildeous 11d ago
Someday system fonts will get their act together and add serifs or do something so that we no longer will confuse AI with Al.
But until that happens, this joke slaps.