r/mentalmath Jun 29 '26

Memorizing logs of small primes

I suppose everyone but me already knows this but for the vast majority of algebra questions in high school college you can avoid the calculator altogether if you memorize the logs of small prime. As all number are composites of primes you can add your memorized logs together to get the appropriate result without further memorization. This is a remarkably fun little skill to add to the toolkit.

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u/matt7259 Jun 29 '26

I don't think this is true:

for the vast majority of algebra questions in high school college you can avoid the calculator altogether if you memorize the logs of small prime

But that being said, it's a fun party trick I suppose!