So What Are Logarithms Good For, Anyway?

Name: _______________________

1. Atmospheric pressure decreases at higher altitudes. In the equation P = 14.7(10) -0.02h , P

represents the atmospheric pressure in pounds per square inch, and h represents the altitude
above sea level in miles.
a. The elevation of Denver, CO, is about 1 mile (Denver is sometimes referred to as “The mile-high
city.”) Find the atmospheric pressure in Denver.

b. The highest mountain in the world is Mt. Everest in Nepal, which is about 5.5 miles above sea
level. Find the atmospheric pressure at the top of the mountain.

c. Now – these problems may be familiar because we did them on a previous assignment, but
here is where the logarithm comes in: I want you to find how high above sea level you would
have to be in order to feel a pressure of 13 pounds per square inch.

2. Compound Interest. Andy invests $1,000 in a bank that pays out 7% interest, compounded
annually. Mathematically this means that his money multiplies by 1.07 every year, so after one year
he has $1000×1.07=$1070. Note that your answers to parts (a) and (c) will be numbers, but your
answers to parts (b) and (d) will be formulae.
a. After 3 years, how much money does Andy have?

b. After t years, how much money m does Andy have? m(t) =

c. After how many years t does Andy have $m? t(m) =

*Can only be solved on SOME calculators!
3. Sound Intensity. Sound is a wave in the air—the loudness of the sound is related to the intensity of
the wave. The intensity of a whisper is approximately 100; the intensity of background noise in a
quiet rural area is approximately 1000; the intensity of a normal conversation is approximately
1,000,000; a rock concert (and the threshold of pain) has an intensity around 1,000,000,000,000.
Place these points on a number line in the space below, and label them. Then answer the question:
what’s wrong with this number line?

4. That was pretty ugly, wasn’t it? It’s almost impossible to graph or visualize something going from a
hundred to a trillion: the range is too big.
Fortunately, sound volume is usually not measured in intensity, but in loudness, which is defined by
the formula: L=10 log10 I, where L is the loudness (measured in decibels), and I is the intensity.
a. What is the loudness, in decibels, of a whisper?

b. What is the loudness, in decibels, of a rock concert?

c. Now do the number line again, labeling all the sounds—but this time, graph loudness instead of
intensity.

d. That was a heck of a lot nicer, wasn’t it? (This one is sort of rhetorical.)
e. The quietest sound a human being can hear is intensity 1. What is the loudness of that sound?

f. Sound intensity can never be negative, but it can be less than 1. What can you tell me about
the loudness of such inaudible sounds?

g. The formula I gave above gives loudness as a function of intensity. Write the opposite function,
that gives intensity as a function of loudness.

h. If sound A is twenty decibels higher than sound B, how much more intense is it? HINT: make a
table of values!
5. Earthquake intensity. When an Earthquake occurs, seismic detectors register the shaking of the
ground, and are able to measure the “amplitude” (fancy word for “how big they are”) of the waves.
However, just like sound intensity, this amplitude varies so much that it is very difficult to graph or
work with. So Earthquakes are measured on the Richter scale which is the log10 of the amplitude
(r=log10a).
a. Imagine trying to show, on a graph, the amplitudes of a bunch of earthquakes, ranging from
microearthquakes to great earthquakes. (YES, just imagine it—I’m not going to make you do it.)
A lot easier with the Richter scale, ain’t it?
b. Two Earthquakes are measured—the second one has 1000 times the amplitude of the first.
What is the difference in their measurements on the Richter scale? HINT: Make another table
of values!

6. pH. In Chemistry, a very important quantity is the concentration of Hydrogen ions, written as
[H+]—this is related to the acidity of a liquid. In a normal pond, the concentration of Hydrogen ions
1
is around 10-6 moles/liter. (In other words, every liter of water has about 10 –6, or moles
1,000,000
of Hydrogen ions.) Now, acid rain begins to fall on that pond, and the concentration of Hydrogen
1
ions begins to go up, until the concentration is 10-4 moles/liter (every liter has moles of H+).
10,000
a. How much did the concentration go up by?

b. Acidity is usually not measured as concentration (because the numbers are very ugly, as you
can see), but as pH, which is defined as –log10[H+]. What is the pH of the normal pond?

c. What is the pH of the pond after the acid rain?

7. Based on numbers 3–6, write a brief description of what kind of function generally leads scientists
to want to use a logarithmic scale.

Some Answers: 1.c. h = 2.66 miles 2. c. t(m) = log1.07 (M/1000)

4. e. L = 0 4. f. they are negative 5. b. off by 3 dB 6. C. 4