Lecture, Barnard's Inn Hall, Wednesday, 22 May 2024 - 18:00
Logarithms: Mobile Phones, Modelling & Statistics?

Logarithms were perhaps once thought of as just an old-fashioned way to do sums on slide rules. But they underpin much of modern life, from modelling the COVID pandemic to Claude Shannon’s mathematical theory of information (which makes mobile phones a reality) and making sense of Cristiano Ronaldo’s crazy Instagram follower numbers.
This lecture will explore the basics and history of logarithms, and then show how they are a natural way to represent many models and datasets.
Support Gresham
Gresham College has offered an outstanding education to the public free of charge for over 400 years. Today, Gresham plays an important role in fostering a love of learning and a greater understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Your donation will help to widen our reach and to broaden our audience, allowing more people to benefit from a high-quality education from some of the brightest minds.