Assignment 1

PART 1
Long before the calculator,logarithms were great mathematical laboursaving
devices?
Although there is evidence that logarithms were known in 8th century India,their
invention as an aid to calculation is attributed to Scottish nobleman named John
Napier (1550-1617) Mirifici logarithmorum canonis description (1614) and
Mirifici logarithmorum canonis construction (published posthumously in 1619). In
collaboration with Oxford professor Henry Briggs, Napier refined his logarithms
by constructing tables for logarithms in base 10. Napier is also credited with
creating one of the earliest calculating machines (Napier bones) and with the
first systematic use of the decimal point.
Not a bad mathematical pedigree for a man who never finished university and who
considered his most important work to be his Plain Discovery of the Whole
Revelation of St.John (1593).

ASSIGNMENT 1

JOHN NAPIER
Napier lived during an age of great innovation in the world of
astronomy.Copernicus had published his theory of the solar system in 1543, and
many astronomers were eagerly involved in calculating and re-calculating
planetary positions based in the wake of Copernicuss ideas.Their calculations took
up pages and hours and hours of work.Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) still had to fill
nearly 1000 large pages with dense arithmetical computations to obtain his famous
laws of planetary motions! Napiers logarithms helped ease that burden.
Because they are exponents, logarithms allow tedious calculations (like
multiplying and dividing very large numbers) to be replaced by the simpler process
of adding and subtracting the corresponding logarithms.
Not that mathematicians simply put down their pens after Napier.Many objected to
using logarithms because no one knew understood they worked (an objection
similar to one made yo the use of computers in the 1960s)!

ASSIGNMENT 1

PART 2
1) Indices provide a compact algebraic notation for repeated multiplication.For
example,it is much easier to write 3^5 than 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 x 3.
Once index notation is introduced the index laws arise naturally when
simplifying
numerical and algebraic expressions.Thus the simplification 2^2 x 2^2 =
2^4 quickly
leads to the rule a^m x a^n = a^mn , for all positive integers m and n.
As often happens in mathematics, it is natural to ask question such as :
~ Can we give meaning to the zero index?
~ Can we give meaning to a negative index?
~ Can we give meaning to rational or fractional index?

In many applications of mathematics, we can express numbers as powers of some

given base.We can reverse the question and ask, for example, What power of 2
gives 16? Our attention is then turned to the index itself. This leads to the motion
of a logarithm, which is simply another name for the index.
Logarithms are used in many places :
~ decibels, that are used to measure sound pressure, are defined are using
logarithms.
~ the Richter scale, that is used to measure earthquake intensity, is defined
using logarithms.
~ The pH value in chemistry, that is used to define the level of acidity of a
substance, is also

defined using the notation of logarithm.

When two measured quantities appear to be related by exponential function, the
parameters of the function can be estimated using log plots. This is a very useful
tool in experimental science.
Logarithms can be used to solve equations such as 3^x, for x.
In senior mathematics, competency in manipulating indices is essential, since they
are used extensively in both differential and integral calculus.Thus, to differentiate
or integrate a function, it is first necessary to convert to index form.