# How to find a log?

Can you guys tell me how a logarithm table can be made? Also, to guys who upgraded to $Brilliant^{2}$ can you guys tell me what's special about it?

Thank you.I would appreciate your help. :)

Note by Vaibhav Reddy
5 years, 4 months ago

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- 5 years, 4 months ago

I watch their videos.Thanks for mentioning that video,but I already say that for answers.

But the solution does not go close to my dilemma.

- 5 years, 4 months ago

One way to make a log table would be with a language like python. Using standard libraries, you could do

 1 2 3 4 import math for i in range(1,10): print "Log(%d): %0.4f" % (i, math.log(i)) 

giving

 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Log(1): 0.0000 Log(2): 0.6931 Log(3): 1.0986 Log(4): 1.3863 Log(5): 1.6094 Log(6): 1.7918 Log(7): 1.9459 Log(8): 2.0794 Log(9): 2.1972 

Staff - 5 years, 4 months ago

Oh wow...I really liked the method(using python).....but actually Newton never used Python...so mathematically is there a method possible?I did get the python code though :)

- 5 years, 4 months ago

I'm not sure if Newton had a big role in calculating log tables. From what I know, two people named Briggs and Napier were the major hype men for the logarithm in calculations, and published popular tables. The history is laid out here: Napier logarithms.

Staff - 5 years, 4 months ago

@josh silverman can you explain why you have % in the print statement? I don't quite understand each use of % there...

Staff - 5 years, 4 months ago

Placing %X inside a string can accept one string argument. X is used to indicate what type is being passed, and each type has formatting options. %d means int, %f means float, and %s means string. Once a %X is in a string, arguments can be passed using % followed by a tuple containing all of the arguments, and the arguments are passed to the %s in the order of the tuple.

In the code above, %0.4f indicates that a float will be passed and that 4 decimal places should be displayed (with rounding). 0 is the minimum width of the displayed number. So if you had %11.4f, the passed float would be rounded to 4 decimal points and enough whitespace would be added to the front of the string to make a text width of 11 characters.

Staff - 5 years, 4 months ago

Got it. Thanks!

Staff - 5 years, 4 months ago

Sure thing Silas! Brilliant squared has some pretty nice features which have helped me out A LOT. I originally upgraded for the practice maps mainly, but then I found the scratchpad-calculator feature EXTREMELY useful: there's no more need to use dozens of scratch paper as you work through your daily batch of brilliant problems, this feature is an excellent substitute for them! The practice maps also help out a lot in developing skills for level 4 or 5 problem-solving. One bug I noticed though is that an error pops up every time I click to view a solution to a problem in a practice map (its the same problem I got as I tried to upgrade @Silas Hundt ). Regardless, I had expectations about brilliant squared before I upgraded, and, fortunately for me, they were all met!

- 5 years, 4 months ago

@Alaa Qarooni Thanks for the bug report about solutions in practice—we'll get it fixed!

@Vaibhav Reddy do you have more questions?

Staff - 5 years, 4 months ago

Of course I do.... How to make a log table?I have searching for that for,like a month or so?

- 5 years, 4 months ago

Also I am very much impressed with the Brilliant squared....the cost too is very promising,,,,

- 5 years, 4 months ago

@Alaa Qarooni just upgraded yesterday. Alaa, can you give a review for @Vaibhav Reddy?

Staff - 5 years, 4 months ago