Definition:Common Logarithm/Historical Note

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Definition

Common logarithms were developed by Henry Briggs, as a direct offshoot of the work of John Napier.


After seeing the tables that Napier published, Briggs consulted Napier, and suggested defining them differently, using base $10$.

In $1617$, Briggs published a set of tables of logarithms of the first $1000$ positive integers.

In $1624$, he published tables of logarithms which included $30 \, 000$ logarithms going up to $14$ decimal places.


Before the advent of cheap means of electronic calculation, common logarithms were widely used as a technique for performing multiplication.


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