Logarithms

Logarithms can be particularly problematic for students, but mastery of them is essential especially in physical chemistry. Undergraduates find logs difficult partly because they don't accept that log quantities are real numbers and partly because they use calculators instead of log tables so they don't realise that logs can be used to simplify calculations. Consequently, they often memorise the properties of logs and exponents without understanding the material. Here, after defining logarithms we will look at a couple of chemistry examples that illustrate their properties and their relevance.