MBA Quantitative Aptitude Basic Concepts – Logarithms

Dear Aspirants,

Here, we bring for you another tricky yet important concept to learn. ‘Logarithms’ is one important topic of algebra which has the potential to lower the scores of a CAT aspirant.

Hence, it is important to gain proficiency on this topic in order to fetch brilliant scores in this topic. An in-direct application of this topic can be expected in the exponential questions.

Parts of a logarithm:

1. Base

The number that needs to be raised is written in the subscript and is called as the ‘base’. In the above example 2 is the base.

2. Argument

In the logarithm, the desired result or the number for which the base is raised is called the argument. In the above example, 8 is the argument.

3. Exponent

How many times the number 98457 should be raised to get 98457? The answer is one!

How many times a positive number can be raised to make it negative? No solution! This is just to make you understand the difference when it comes to negative logarithm.

Parts of logarithm

A logarithm of any number contains two parts namely, Characteristic and Mantissa.

Characteristic:

Characteristic can differ for a number greater than one and a number lesser than one.

Mantissa:

Mantissa is the part of the logarithmic number after the decimal point. For this part logarithmic table is referred.

We hope that these concepts along with their related exercise will aid you in your preparation of Logarithms topic.

You can also post your comments if some of your doubts from this topic still remain unsolved.

For more updates on the quantitative aptitude section of MBA entrance exam, keep visiting jagranjosh.com