what exactly *is* a logarithm and what does it do?

Question

I mean, I’ve used them in algebra many times but I never really understood what it does. Kinda like in biostatistics how I could do the math, but how it worked was beyond me entirely.

So yeah: like what’s this sorcery and what does it do/why do we use it?

In: Mathematics

Answer 1

Logarithm, the exponent or power to which a base must be raised to yield a given number. Expressed mathematically, x is the logarithm of n to the base b if bx = n, in which case one writes x = logb n. For example, 23 = 8; therefore, 3 is the logarithm of 8 to base 2, or 3 = log2