Logarithmic Scale - Logarithmic and Semi-logarithmic Plots and Equations of Lines

Logarithmic and Semi-logarithmic Plots and Equations of Lines

Log and semilog scales are best used to view two types of equations (for ease, the natural base 'e' is used):

In the first case, plotting the equation on a semilog scale (log Y versus X) gives: log Y = −aX, which is linear.
In the second case, plotting the equation on a log-log scale (log Y versus log X) gives: log Y = b log X, which is linear.
When values that span large ranges need to be plotted, a logarithmic scale can provide a means of viewing the data that allows the values to be determined from the graph. The logarithmic scale is marked off in distances proportional to the logarithms of the values being represented. For example, in the figure below, for both plots, y has the values of: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100. For the plot on the left, the log₁₀ of the values of y are plotted on a linear scale. Thus the first value is log₁₀(1) = 0; the second value is log₁₀(2) = 0.301; the 3rd value is log₁₀(3) = 0.4771; the 4th value is log₁₀(4) = 0.602, and so on. The plot on the right uses logarithmic (or log, as it is also referred to) scaling on the vertical axis. Note that values where the exponent term is close to an integral fraction of 10 (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, etc.) are shown as 10 raised to the power that yields the original value of y. These are shown for y = 2, 4, 8, 10, 20, 40, 80 and 100.

Note that for y = 2 and 20, y = 100.301 and 101.301; for y = 4 and 40, y = 100.602 and 101.602. This is due to the law that

So, knowing log₁₀(2) = 0.301, the rest can be derived:

Note that the values of y are easily picked off the above figure. By comparison, values of y less than 10 are difficult to determine from the figure below, where they are plotted on a linear scale, thus confirming the earlier assertion that values spanning large ranges are more easily read from a logarithmically scaled graph.