Log-free Numbers

Most recent answer: 10/22/2007

Q:
How we can calculate the order of 2^30 without using log?
- Md Aftab Ahmed (age 20)
Delhi Public School, Delhi, India
A:
I guess you could say that any calculation uses ideas like logs indirectly, but here’s how I do it without using any log tables or calculators.

You know 2^10=1024. That’s about 10^3.

So 2^30 =1024^3, or about 10^9.

Mike W.

This number crops up all the time in computer applications; It’s very close to one billion, as above, and so one Gigabyte is really 2^30 bytes. -- Tom

(published on 10/22/2007)