| CSC300: Counting and logarithm [3/9] | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
We are all used to counting by adding one (arithmetic series):
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... N
You can also count by multiplying by two (geometric series):
1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 ... N
There is an inverse operation, called logarithm.
People often write lg for the base 2 logarithm.
lg(1) = 0 lg(thousand) ~ 10
lg(2) = 1 lg(million) ~ 20
lg(4) = 2 lg(billion) ~ 30
lg(8) = 3 lg(trillion) ~ 40
lg(16) = 4 lg(quadrillion) ~ 50
lg(32) = 5 lg(quintillion) ~ 60
lg(64) = 6
lg(128) = 7
lg(256) = 8
lg(512) = 9
lg(1024) = 10