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

Subtraction is the inverse of addition.

Division is the inverse of multiplication.

Logarithms are the inverse of exponents.

Using logarithms to plot data can help us see when exponential growth or decay are happening because that will look linear on the plot and linear is easy to recognize. It also helps because a 10% jump looks the same whether it’s from 1 to 1.1 or from 1,000 to 1,100. If you care about relative changes, logarithmic plotting helps you recognize that.