page 2 Did you get the answer? This means 'What power of 5 is 25', and the answer is '2' It can also be arranged this way: A logarithm is just a power. And the power need not be a whole number. For example: 101 = 10 101.76= 57102= 100 The logarithm need not have a whole number answer either: 'What power of 10 is 57?' It's about 1.76 Ones like these require a calculator to work out. I can't stress enough the importance of having the simple powers memorized, Just as you needed to have the times tables memorized to be successful at polynomial factoring in Math 10, in order to solve backwards logarithms like the following question: What is x if logx81 = 4 you will need to have some powers memorized. Your calculator won't solve these, and trial and error is wasting time you may need on the exam. O.K., now you know what logarithms are. If you think you're ready, here's a short quiz on logarithms! Logarithms pg. 1 | Main Page