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.
Sources
- 1989: Ephraim J. Borowski and Jonathan M. Borwein: Dictionary of Mathematics ... (previous) ... (next): Briggsian logarithm
- 2008: Ian Stewart: Taming the Infinite ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $5$: Eternal Triangles: Logarithms
- 2014: Christopher Clapham and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Briggs, Henry (1561-1630)