Logs Of Negative Numbers

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A long time ago, back in February of 2008, when Mathmonsoon had just begun, I discovered an identity that expresses the logarithm with any base (other than -1, 1 or 0) of any number (excluding 0). I was excited because I had always been curious about how my TI-84 calculator and Mathematica are able to spit out logs of negative numbers: for example, they can calculate the log of -4 as some number π‘Ž+𝑏𝑖, which turns out to be approximately 1.38629+ 3.14159𝑖. (Note: In the calculations below, if a log has an unspecified base, assume I am talking about the natural log: base 𝑒.) , where π‘™π‘œπ‘”π‘§ (𝑦) is Here’s the formula: π‘™π‘œπ‘”π‘Ž (βˆ’π‘›) = π‘™π‘œπ‘”π‘Ž (𝑛) + π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝑐𝑖𝑠(πœ‹π‘™π‘œπ‘”(π‘Ž))) π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝑛) 𝑖𝑧 the log base 𝑧 of 𝑦 and 𝑐𝑖𝑠(𝑧) = 𝑒 = π‘π‘œπ‘ (𝑧)+𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛(𝑧). Not only is it unusually long and strange-looking, but it doesn’t really seem correct. We can reduce it quite a bit: first, note that 𝑐𝑖𝑠(πœ‹π‘™π‘œπ‘”(π‘Ž)) = π‘’π‘–πœ‹π‘™π‘œπ‘”(π‘Ž) , so π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝑐𝑖𝑠(πœ‹π‘™π‘œπ‘”(π‘Ž))) = π‘–πœ‹π‘™π‘œπ‘”(π‘Ž). Then we are left with π‘™π‘œπ‘”π‘Ž (βˆ’π‘›) = π‘™π‘œπ‘”π‘Ž (𝑛) + π‘–πœ‹π‘™π‘œπ‘”(π‘Ž) . Moving the π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝑛) logs base π‘Ž to the same side we have π‘™π‘œπ‘”π‘Ž (βˆ’1) = need to notice that π‘™π‘œπ‘”π‘Ž (βˆ’1) = with

π‘–πœ‹ π‘™π‘œπ‘”(π‘Ž)

=

π‘–πœ‹π‘™π‘œπ‘”(π‘Ž) , π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝑛)

π‘–πœ‹ π‘™π‘œπ‘”(π‘Ž)

since π‘Ž

π‘–πœ‹ π‘™π‘œπ‘”(π‘Ž)

π‘–πœ‹π‘™π‘œπ‘”(π‘Ž) . π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝑛) π‘–πœ‹

=𝑒

To continue, we

= βˆ’1, so we are left

or π‘™π‘œπ‘”(π‘Ž)2 = π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝑛), which clearly isn’t always true.

There are two things that are really weird about this. First, I have no idea where the formula came from. I’ve been messing around with Euler’s formula in every way possible to recreate it, but have come up with nothing but some other cool derivations. The other weird thing is that there is a very simple way to determine the log of a negative number: say we want to find the value of π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝑧). Then write 𝑧 = π‘Ÿπ‘’π‘–πœƒ so that π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝑧) = π‘™π‘œπ‘”(π‘Ÿ) + π‘–πœƒ. All you need to do now is find πœƒ, which will simply be the angle between the √ π‘₯ and 𝑦 components of the 𝑧 in the complex √ plane. As πœ‹an example, π‘–πœ‹ π‘™π‘œπ‘”( 3 + 𝑖) = π‘™π‘œπ‘”(2) + 6 because in this case, 3 + 𝑖 = 2𝑐𝑖𝑠 6 , which you can check yourself. Since we can now take the log of any complex number base 𝑒, it is easy to take the log base anything else using the change of base . formula, π‘™π‘œπ‘”π›Ό (𝛽) = π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝛼) π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝛽) Despite my misguided explorations, I’ll go over a few of the cool results I came across. Start with π‘’π‘–πœ™ = π‘π‘œπ‘ (πœ™) + 𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛(πœ™). Then, inverting both sides 1 gives π‘’βˆ’π‘–πœ™ = (π‘π‘œπ‘ (πœ™) + 𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛(πœ™))βˆ’1 = π‘π‘œπ‘ (πœ™)+𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛(πœ™) . Multilpying the fraction by π‘π‘œπ‘ (πœ™)βˆ’π‘–π‘ π‘–π‘›(πœ™) π‘π‘œπ‘ (πœ™)βˆ’π‘–π‘ π‘–π‘›(πœ™)

π‘π‘œπ‘ (πœ™)βˆ’π‘–π‘ π‘–π‘›(πœ™) gives π‘’πœ™ = π‘π‘œπ‘ (πœ™) 2 +𝑠𝑖𝑛(πœ™)2 = π‘π‘œπ‘ (πœ™) βˆ’ 𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛(πœ™). Then, noticing that π‘–πœ™ π‘π‘œπ‘ (πœ™) βˆ’ 𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛(πœ™) = 𝑒 βˆ’ 2𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛(πœ™), we have π‘’βˆ’π‘–πœ™ = π‘’π‘–πœ™ βˆ’ 2𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛(πœ™), and solving π‘–πœ™ βˆ’π‘–πœ™ for 𝑠𝑖𝑛(πœ™) gives 𝑠𝑖𝑛(πœ™) = 𝑒 βˆ’π‘’ , which is a nice analytic continuation of 2𝑖

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the 𝑠𝑖𝑛 function. I have used this formula in the past, but never derived it for myself. (The π‘π‘œπ‘  and π‘‘π‘Žπ‘› functions come about from the same method.) Another funky calculation that came out of this was the exact value of 𝑖 , which actually turns out to be a real number! We begin with 𝑖𝑖 = π‘’π‘–π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝑖) . √ = π‘–πœ‹2 = π‘™π‘œπ‘”( βˆ’1) = We know that π‘’π‘–πœ‹ = βˆ’1 so that π‘™π‘œπ‘”(βˆ’1) = π‘–πœ‹, or π‘™π‘œπ‘”(βˆ’1) 2 π‘–πœ‹ πœ‹ π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝑖), so that π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝑖) = π‘–πœ‹2 . Then the exact value of 𝑖𝑖 is 𝑒𝑖 2 = π‘’βˆ’ 2 . We πœ‹ πœ‹ can use this to get the value of things like π‘–βˆ’π‘– = 𝑒 2 or (𝑖𝑖 )𝑖 = (π‘’βˆ’ 2 )𝑖 = π‘–πœ‹ π‘’βˆ’ 2 = π‘π‘œπ‘ (βˆ’ πœ‹2 ) + 𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛(βˆ’ πœ‹2 ) = βˆ’π‘–; but why stop there? What other insane calculations can we come up with?! Well, if (𝑖𝑖 )𝑖 = βˆ’π‘– then ((𝑖𝑖 )𝑖 )𝑖 = (βˆ’π‘–)𝑖 = πœ‹ πœ‹ 𝑒 2 , and (((𝑖𝑖 )𝑖 )𝑖 )𝑖 ) = (𝑒 2 )𝑖 = π‘π‘œπ‘ ( πœ‹2 ) + 𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛( πœ‹2 ) = 𝑖, and we have reached a periodic point. And that’s pretty sweet: just as 𝑖𝑛 is periodic with period 4, (π‘–π‘˜ = π‘–π‘˜+4 ), the power tower of 𝑖’s has period 5. 𝑖

πœ‹π‘–

There is another simpler identity that I was able to derive: βˆ’π‘› = 𝑛1+ π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝑛) . In the real numbers, 𝑛π‘₯ = βˆ’π‘› has no solutions for 𝑛 (aside from 𝑛 = 0) with π‘₯ given; we can see this by manipulating to obtain 𝑛π‘₯ + 𝑛 = 0, or 𝑛(𝑛π‘₯βˆ’1 + 1) = 0, and 𝑛π‘₯βˆ’1 = βˆ’1 clearly has no real solutions. However, the above formula gives us the complex power we can raise any number to to obtain its negative. And it is derived very simply: start with Euler’s identity, πœ‹π‘–π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝑛) π‘™π‘œπ‘”π‘› = βˆ’1, power, to obtain 𝑒 π‘’πœ‹π‘– = βˆ’1. Then, raise both sides to the π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝑛) π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝑛) πœ‹π‘–

πœ‹π‘–

or (π‘’π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝑛) ) π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝑛) = βˆ’1. Since π‘’π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝑛) = 𝑛, we have that 𝑛 π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝑛) = βˆ’1, and πœ‹π‘– multiplying both sides by 𝑛 we are left with βˆ’π‘› = 𝑛 π‘™π‘œπ‘”(𝑛) +1 . For example, πœ‹π‘– 2 π‘™π‘œπ‘”(2) = βˆ’2, a strange result. As usual, I can’t imagine any of these have practical applications; regardless, it’s nice to wrap up an old idea.

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