The Student Room Group

units with ln or log of a variable URGENT

Hi,
if i was doing an experiment and measured for example current for different batteries then took the natural log of each value for current what would the units be, would it still be amps or would it be ln(amps) or no units at all?
Thanks
Reply 1
Original post by abimoon
Hi,
if i was doing an experiment and measured for example current for different batteries then took the natural log of each value for current what would the units be, would it still be amps or would it be ln(amps) or no units at all?
Thanks


AFAIK you can only take a log of a dimensionless number. The ln(amps) doesn't have any meaning. A similar case is if you had eI e^{I} where I is current, that is also a dimensionless number as e^(anything) must be dimensionless.

I'm only taking A level though, so I could be wrong.
Reply 2
Original post by lerjj
AFAIK you can only take a log of a dimensionless number. The ln(amps) doesn't have any meaning. A similar case is if you had eI e^{I} where I is current, that is also a dimensionless number as e^(anything) must be dimensionless.

I'm only taking A level though, so I could be wrong.


Thanks :smile: so does this mean it wouldnt have any units?
Original post by abimoon
Thanks :smile: so does this mean it wouldnt have any units?
The definition of a natural logarithm is the power to which Eulers number (e) must be raised in order to equal the number in question.

i.e.

ex=20e^x = 20

ln(20) Amperes means

x=2.9957x = 2.9957

i.e.

e2.9957=20e^{2.9957} = 20

the natural logarithm of 20 (2.9957) is dimensionless.

Therefore 20 Amps=e2.9957 Amps20 \mathrm {\ Amps} = e^{2.9957} \mathrm {\ Amps}
Reply 4
Original post by uberteknik
The definition of a natural logarithm is the power to which Eulers number (e) must be raised in order to equal the number in question.

i.e.

ex=20e^x = 20

ln(20) Amperes means

x=2.9957x = 2.9957

i.e.

e2.9957=20e^{2.9957} = 20

the natural logarithm of 20 (2.9957) is dimensionless.

Therefore 20 Amps=e2.9957 Amps20 \mathrm {\ Amps} = e^{2.9957} \mathrm {\ Amps}


A bit confused, if i plotted a graph of the ln of a value against something else would the ln vairiable have a unit??
Original post by abimoon
A bit confused, if i plotted a graph of the ln of a value against something else would the ln vairiable have a unit??


No. The axis would just be labelled as ln(I).
(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 6
Original post by uberteknik
No. The axis would just be labelled as ln(I).


Thanks, are there any cases where there would be a unit?
Reply 7
Original post by abimoon
Thanks, are there any cases where there would be a unit?


The units of the argument of any function need to be dimension less, so no.

If you are taking further maths, or intend to, you'll come across the taylor expansion, taking this expansion of ln(x)ln(x) about x=1 yields:

ln(x)=(x1)12(x1)2+13(x1)3...ln(x) = (x-1)-\dfrac{1}{2}(x-1)^2+\dfrac{1}{3}(x-1)^3...

i.e if x has units, they wouldn't hold.

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