Calculating Base 10 Logarithms in your

Head
Calculating base 10 logarithms in your head on the fly is a lot easier than you may
think. It is simply a matter of memorization and a little estimation...

First memorize all the single digit base 10 logs. Don't worry, it's not as painful as it
sounds. I even made the chart for you:
Log Base 10 of... Is equal to...

1 0

2 0.301

3 0.477

4 0.602

5 0.698

6 0.778

7 0.845

8 0.903

9 0.954

10 1

Remember this rule from high school?

log(a*b) = log a + log b

And what about this one, you remember it too?

log(10n) = n

Good. 

Example #1: base 10 log of 400

That's the same thing as log(4*100) which equals log 4 + log 100. log of 4 you
know from the table above. Log of 100 is log of 10 2 and therefore is equal to 2. So
the log of 400 is 2 + log 4 which is 2.602. It might sound like a tedious method but
try a few examples first and you will see it's actually pretty quick. 

Now you may ask, what if it isn't just a number with a bunch of 0's after it?

Example #2: base 10 log of 35

Suppose you wanted to find the logarithm of 35. This is the same thing as log(3.5 *
10). The log of 3.5 is somewhere between the log of 3 and 4, but somewhat above
the midpoint (since the log scale gets smaller as you go up). Log of 3 is .477 and
log of 4 is .602 so we'll make a rough guess around .54 or .55 ish. Log of 10 is
obviously 1, so our guesstimate for the log of 35 will be 1 + 0.545.

Our guess: 1.545
Calculator says: 1.544068...

Now you can convince all your friends and teachers that you are a robot.

Example #3: base 10 log of 290438572:

This is fairly close to log(2.9 * 100000000) = log 2.9 + log 10 8

2.9 is close to 3. Log(3) = .477, so we'll guess something slightly below that like .
45

Our Guess: 8 + .45 = 8.45

Calculated Answer: 8.46305...

Now run off and scare some people with your new powers.
Quick calculations with a few logarithms
If you can remember a few logarithms, you can do many calculations quite easily without the aid
of calculators or computers.

Try to remember the logarithms of just seven numbers:

Log 2 = 0.30, log 3 = 0.48, log 7 = 0.85, log 11= 1.04, log 13= 1.11, log 17 = 1.23 and log
19=1.28.
The logarithm of a composite number is equal to the sum of the logarithms of its prime factors;
you can formulate the following table of logarithms:

Number Logarithm Number Logarithm

2 0.30 11 1.04

3 0.48 12 1.08

4 0.60 13 1.11

5 0.70 14 1.15

6 0.78 15 1.18

7 0.85 16 1.20

8 0.90 17 1.23

9 0.95 18 1.26

19 1.28
Note: Logarithm of 11 is 1.04. It means log 1.1 = 0.04. Log 5 = log (10/2) = log10 – log 2.

With the above figures in hand you can do a lot of calculations quite easily.

1. What is 2 raised to power 37?

Logarithm of 2 is 0.30.

37 times 0.30 is 11.10

Since logarithm of 1.2 is 0.08 and logarithm of 1.3 is 0.11, antilog of 0.10 is about 1.26.

So antilog of 11.10 is 1.26 * 10^11.

That is 2^37 = 1.26 * 10^11.

2. What is the 31st root of a 35 digit number?

This can be answered even without knowing the number.

Log of 35th digit number is 34. …

Log of 31st root   = 34. …./ 31
This lies between 34/31 and 34.99/31   or between 1.09 and 1.13.

From the above table, we can see that in this interval, logarithm of 13 is 1.11.

So, 31st root of a 35 digit number is 13.

3. What is the 64th root of a 20 digit number? Answer is 2.
4. What is the cube root of say 74567?
Log of 74567 = 4.873  (interpolating between log 7 =0.85 and log 8 = 0.90).

4.873 / 3 = 1.624.

Antilog of 0.624 is 4.24 (because log 4 = 0.60 and log 5 = 0.70).

So, cube root of 74567 is about 42.4