The log() Function in Scilab
Ever wondered how to calculate the natural logarithm of a number in Scilab? The log() function is your answer. Here's the lowdown:
log(x)
Here, x can be either a single number or an array of numbers. Pretty straightforward, right?
What the log() function does is it returns the natural logarithm.
If you're scratching your head wondering what a natural logarithm is, let's break it down. A natural logarithm is a logarithm to the base "e", where "e" refers to Euler's number. This little number is approximately 2.71828. For instance, the natural logarithm of "2.71828" is 1 because, mathematically, e1 equals 2.71828. In formula terms, that's $$ \log 2.71828 = \ln 2.71828 = 1 $$
Let's look at some practical examples.
Say you want to calculate the natural logarithm of 7.38905609893065 using the log() function.
log(7.38905609893065)
When you key in log(7.38905609893065), the function spits out 2.
Why? Because in math, e2 equals 7.38905609893065.
ans=
2.
Just a heads up: the natural logarithm isn't defined for negative numbers or zero.
So always make sure that the number you're passing to the log() function is positive.
What's more, the log() function can also work with an array of numbers.
In this scenario, it computes the natural logarithm for each element in the array and gives you back an array of the same size.
For example, let's say you've defined an array of numbers in variable A, like this
A = [1, %e, %e^2, %e^3]
Here, %e is Scilab's way of representing Euler's number, e=2.71828.
When you compute the natural logarithm of array A using the log() function, you'll get an array with an identical number of elements.
log(A)
Each element of the new array is the natural logarithm of the corresponding element in the original array A.
[0, 1, 2, 3]
That'll look something like this: [0, 1, 2, 3]. Why? Because the natural logarithm of 1 is zero (giving us the first element), the natural logarithm of "e" is 1 (giving us the second element), and so on. It's as simple as that!
