ABSTRACT
Why it is important to understand: Logarithms All types of engineers use natural and common logarithms. Chemical engineers use them to measure radioactive decay and pH solutions, both of which are measured on a logarithmic scale. The Richter scale which measures earthquake intensity is a logarithmic scale. Biomedical engineers use logarithms to measure cell decay and growth, and also to measure light intensity for bone mineral density measurements. In electrical engineering, a dB (decibel) scale is very useful for expressing attenuations in radio propagation and circuit gains, and logarithms are used for implementing arithmetic operations in digital circuits. Logarithms are especially useful when dealing with the graphical analysis of non-linear relationships and logarithmic scales are used to linearise data to make data analysis simpler. Understanding and using logarithms is clearly important in all branches of engineering.
