Logarithm and Living
Creation is a classroom. All of it is a study in wonder.
Okay. Be optimistic. Worry not. Logarithm isn’t going to be too stark with numbers, powers and bases. Take the above paragraph as my first fruit, as an offering to appease your jittery spirit. Wear it as an amulet around your neck. Flick on your questing switch, and let’s go for a ride.
Now you may ask, “What does logarithm have to do with living?”
Believe me, I am no stranger to this sort of question and the bland feeling that accompanies it. What with my head being a bowl of thick pap during math classes in my days as a pupil and as a junior secondary student. Then, I hardly bothered about the definition of a math concept. Math was simply about numbers and signs, an atmosphere of abstractions that only left-brainers could breathe in.
So relax. Your question is justified.
Are you ready? First, we need to listen to snippets of Logarithm’s story on tape. Alright. On the count of three: One, two, and…
My name is Logarithm. But my native name is “Logarithmus”, derived from the Greek words “Logos” and “Arithmus”. My brain-father, John Napier, gave me the name. He was an English Mathematician of, sad to say, little renown. But he deserves more than what was credited to him because he gave me an identity card. I embody many things.
Let’s pause right there. Did you get that, the last statement? What did you infer from it?
Logarithm embodies many things, even the things we possess, the things we do. But what does this mean?
Take for example the animal life and its potential for growth. We know that the rapid replication of cells leads to the buildup of tissues, and consequently, organs. If tissues and organs were locations, this elementary knowledge would be like flying respectively to both locations, without bothering to count footsteps. Like a single arrow striking through every letter between A and Z. (A being the “cell” progenitor of the entire organism Z.)
Logarithm is about taking steps. You could see it as a series of arrows linking one letter to another, starting from A all the way to Z (a sort of evolution).
Assuming A is a petri dish containing one bacterium (very minute, of course) with the cell capable of reproducing two more cells, let’s say in 1 hour. The first time lapse of 1 hour will result in B, a petri dish containing two bacterial cells. The second time lapse of 1 hour will result in C, a petri dish containing four bacterial cells. The third time lapse of 1 hour will result in D, a petri dish containing eight bacterial cells.
There you have it! In a span of 3 hours, at a constant reproduction rate, there will be eight bacterial cells in the petri dish.
And this goes on and on until Z is attained. At this point, we’ll have a petri dish with approximately 67 million bacterial cells in a time span of 26 hours. (Supposing reproduction comes to the end of the road here.)
Stunning, right? Let’s play the tape again.
I have a half-brother. His name is Exponent. We are two different things, as a leaf is from a fruit. When I add, he multiplies. When I subtract, he divides. His identity card is older than mine, but we sprout from the same ancient, axiomatic seed.
To understand Logarithm better, let’s consider Exponent. While Logarithm counts in steps, Exponent counts in leaps and bounds.
The short history of our hypothetical bacteria colony gives us telltale signs of “steps” and “leaps and bounds”. Did you notice the relationship between population growth and time?
We have bacterial cells dividing and conquering in leaps and bounds up the population index scale, which is on the same lane with the hour hand, swinging from one “time” step to the next.
Logarithm embodies the intricacies of Exponent. What we perceive tells us logarithm-inspired stories. For one, our naked eye can see the marked spread of mold on a bread loaf, not the number of fungi. We wouldn’t know of a change, if a fungus were to join the party.
In practice, why bother to count rice grains, when you can deposit 50kg worth of rice in a bag of corresponding capacity? It’s much easier counting bags than grains, isn’t it?
When dealing with “potbellied”, heavyweight numbers, Logarithm is a workout routine that downsizes them to “six-packs”. (Winks). You wouldn’t want them sprinting on the track of your calculations with ballooned tummies, would you?
So far, we have seen Logarithm play out in cell reproduction and human perception. But I’d like to touch a bit on qualities and virtues that make us valuable as humans. And that will take us to the math definition of Logarithm. (Did someone just grip their amulet?)
The Encarta Dictionary defines Logarithm as the “mathematical raising of a base number: the power to which a base must be raised to equal a given number.”
As earlier stated, I will try not to bore you with powers and bases. However, I’d like to spotlight our cell-reproduction hypothesis again to explain powers and bases.
Did you notice a pattern in our hypothesis?
That pattern is “two”, which has to do with the splitting of a cell into two identical cells. This lies at the heart of their rapid reproduction.
“Two” is a base, i.e., a reference point that ensures stability and rapidity in cell reproduction. And in this scenario, the power to which “two” is raised is the time it takes for it to multiply into millions.
This says something about your values and potentials. Logarithm isn’t just about the physical and your perception of it. It’s the hallmark of what you do, based on values; the quality of work that mirrors resourcefulness in tapping your potentials.
Simply put, these values influence what you do. (In order of magnitude, 2 is less valuable than 3, when both powers have the same base.)
The human potential is vast, if not endless. God has placed eternity in our hearts; therein is the potential to love, the potential to live, the potential to grow, the potential to learn, the potential to create, the potential to do anything!
Life is a study in wonder.
Love. Live. Grow. Learn. Create.
