A scientific calculator has two 'log' buttons on it. These are marked log and ln. The log key is used for calculations of the form \({\log _{10}}x\). For example, to work out that \(\log 10000 = 4 ...

After all, one of the major uses of logarithms is to simplify computations, and computers do that just fine (although they might use logs internally). But 400 years ago, doing math was painful.

Typical algorithms used to compute logarithms are not quick and have a ... The above equation summarized the math behind the algorithm. We get the first term easily using the CLZ instruction.