6 - Exponentials and Logarithms

Abstract

This chapter discusses exponentials and logarithms. It presents two of the most important classes of functions of mathematics: the exponential and logarithmic functions. There are two different ways to define the exponential and logarithmic functions. In a sense to be made precise shortly, exponential and logarithmic functions are inverses of one another. If a be a positive number, then an exponential function is a function of the form f(x) = ax, where x can be any real number. In discussing the logarithm to the base a, if x = ay then the logarithm to the base a of x is y, written as, y = logax.