List of logarithmic identities

In mathematics, there are many logarithmic identities.

Contents
Trivial identities
Cancelling exponentials
Using simpler operations
Changing the base
Summation/subtraction
Exponents
Other/Resulting Identities
Inequalities
Calculus identities
Limits
Derivatives of logarithmic functions
Integral definition
Integrals of logarithmic functions
Approximating large numbers
Complex logarithm identities
Definitions
Constants
Summation
Powers
See also
References
External links

Trivial identities
because , given that b>0
because

Note that logb(0) is undefined because there is no number x such that bx = 0. In fact, there is a vertical asymptote on the graph of
logb(x) at x = 0.

Cancelling exponentials
Logarithms and exponentials with the same base cancel each other. This is true because logarithms and exponentials are inverse operations
(just like multiplication and division or addition and subtraction).

Both of the above are derived from the following two equations that define a logarithm:-
Substituting c in the left equation givesblogb(x) = x, and substituting x in the right gives logb(bc) = c. Finally, replace c by x.

Using simpler operations

Logarithms can be used to make calculations easier. For example, two numbers can be multiplied just by using a logarithm table and adding.
The first three operations below assume x = bc, and/or y = bd so that logb(x) = c and logb(y) = d. Derivations also use the log
definitions x = blog b(x) and x = log b(bx).

because

because

because

because

because
because

Where , , and are positive real numbers and . Both and are real numbers.

The laws result from canceling exponentials and appropriate law of indices. Starting with the first law:

The law for powers exploits another of the laws of indices:

The law relating to quotients then follows:

Similarly, the root law is derived by rewriting the root as a reciprocal power:

Changing the base

This identity is useful to evaluate logarithms on calculators. For instance, most calculators have buttons for ln and for log10 , but not all
calculators have buttons for the logarithm of an arbitrary base.

Consider the equation

Take logarithm base of both sides:

Simplify and solve for :

 Since , then

This formula has several consequences:

where is any permutation of the subscripts 1, ...,n. For example

Summation/subtraction
The following summation/subtraction rule is especially useful in probability theory when one is dealing with a sum of log-probabilities:

Note that in practice and have to be switched on the right hand side of the equations if . Also note that the subtraction identity is
not defined if since the logarithm of zero is not defined. Many programming languages have a specific log1p(x) function that
calculates without underflow when is small.

More generally:

where are sorted in descending order.

Exponents
A useful identity involving exponents:

or more universally:
Other/Resulting Identities

Inequalities
Based on [1] and [2]

Both are pretty sharp around x=0, but not for large x.

Calculus identities

Limits

The last limit is often summarized as "logarithms grow more slowly than any power or root of
x".

Derivatives of logarithmic functions

Where , , and .

Integral definition
Integrals of logarithmic functions

To remember higher integrals, it's convenient to define:

Where is the nth Harmonic number.

Then,

Approximating large numbers

The identities of logarithms can be used to approximate large numbers. Note that logb(a) + logb(c) = logb(ac), where a, b, and c are
arbitrary constants. Suppose that one wants to approximate the 44th Mersenne prime, 232,582,657 −1. To get the base-10 logarithm, we
would multiply 32,582,657 by log10 (2), getting 9,808,357.09543 = 9,808,357 + 0.09543 . We can then get
109,808,357 × 10 0.09543 ≈ 1.25 × 10 9,808,357 .

Similarly, factorials can be approximated by summing the logarithms of the terms.

Complex logarithm identities

The complex logarithm is the complex number analogue of the logarithm function. No single valued function on the complex plane can
satisfy the normal rules for logarithms. However a multivalued function can be defined which satisfies most of the identities. It is usual to
consider this as a function defined on a Riemann surface. A single valued version called the principal value of the logarithm can be defined
which is discontinuous on the negative x axis and equals the multivalued version on a single
branch cut.

Definitions
The convention will be used here that a capital first letter is used for the principal value of functions and the lower case version refers to the
multivalued function. The single valued version of definitions and identities is always given first followed by a separate section for the
multiple valued versions.

ln(r) is the standard natural logarithm of the real number r.

Log(z) is the principal value of the complex logarithm function and has imaginary part in the
range (-π, π].
Arg(z) is the principal value of the arg function, its value is restricted to (-π, π]. It can be
computed using Arg(x+iy)= atan2(y, x).
The multiple valued version oflog(z) is a set but it is easier to write it without braces and using it in formulas follows obvious rules.

log(z) is the set of complex numbers v which satisfy ev = z

arg(z) is the set of possible values of the arg function applied to z.
When k is any integer:

Constants
Principal value forms:

Multiple value forms, for anyk an integer:

Summation
Principal value forms:

Multiple value forms:

Powers
A complex power of a complex number can have many possible values.

Principal value form:

Multiple value forms:

Where k1, k2 are any integers:

See also
List of trigonometric identities
Exponential function

References
1. http://ajmaa.org/RGMIA/papers/v7n2/pade.pdf
2. http://www.lkozma.net/inequalities_cheat_sheet/ineq.pdf

External links
Weisstein, Eric W. "Logarithm". MathWorld.
Logarithm in Mathwords

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