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What sense can be made of the natural logarithm, When appearing in a physical process?

For example, This integral in the thermodynamic $\int_i^f \frac {dV}{V}=ln\frac {V_f}{V_i}$ when $V$ denotes volume. In general $ln\frac {Q_f}{Q_i}$ when the $Q$ denotes physical quantities.

Or in the formular of entropy: $S=k_Bln\Omega$

Why sometimes natural logarithm can be interpreted as a physical process? What are the odds of that happening?

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    $\begingroup$ It's not entirely clear what you're asking. Is there some reason for which you think it's odd that natural logarithms are appearing? Are you concerned about something mathematical? Are you looking for some sort of physical intuition? $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 3, 2013 at 2:17

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This is a pretty vague question, but I take it that you're groping for some "physical significance". The clearest one is that the logarithm is the inverse of the exponential function $x\mapsto e^x$ which itself arises whenever the rate of quantity's variation is equal to or proportional to that quantity, a fairly common statement describing physical processes. For example: rates of chemical reactions, radio active decays, attenuation of light or other EM radiation through mediums all follow such laws. Given this "physical definition" it follows then that the inverse function is simply that given by $x\mapsto \int_1^x \frac{\mathrm{d}z}{z}$ and then this definition is broadened into the punctured complex plane $\mathbb{C}\sim \{0\}$ by analytic continuation. Moreover the functions $\exp$ and $\log$ defined in this way have particularly simple Taylor series (the former is universally convergent, the latter convergent in an open unit radius circle about $z=1$) that make their definitions relatively easy to broaden to objects other than numbers such as matrices, operators and so forth.

The idea of a rate of a quantity's variation being proportional to that quantity is further generalized in operator equations and, in particular, in the theory of Lie groups, where $\exp$ and its inverse $\log$ play central roles in mapping neighbourhoods of the group's identity to and from the "Lie algebra", i.e. the space of the linear transformations that play the role of generalized "rates of change" - these can now be complex numbers, quaternions or in general square matrices (for the Lie algebra they can always be thought of as square matrices - Ado's theorem - but this is not always so for the Lie group). Again, it is the natural base $e$ logarithm that falls from the definitions by dint of its Taylor expansion around the identity. The theory of Lie groups, with its fundamental reliance on $\exp$ and $\log$, plays many important roles in physics and the sciences in general. In an even more generalized setting, the Schrödinger equation is also a generalized "rate of change proportional to the quantity" equation, as are the descriptions of flows and the exponential map defining geodesics in differential geometry.

Lastly, since you ask about thermodynamics and the formula graven on Boltzmann's headstone, the logarithm is the grounding of the natural encoding of the idea that numbers of possibilities (volumes of phase spaces) multiply, whereas intuitively the corresponding "entropies", as extensive protperties of thermodynamic systems should add. Whilst it should be clear that the logarithm's base does not matter for this definition (indeed information theorists choose base 2 logarithms to write informational entropies in bi nary digi ts or bits), one could argue that the natural base $e$ logarithm that is the "prototypical" isomorphism (which is what Boltzmann's intuitive idea is all about) between the group of reals and addition and the group of strictly positive reals and multiplication that arises from the Lie theoretical idea of mapping the Lie group $(\mathbb{R}^+\sim\{0\},\,\times)$ onto its Lie algebra $(\mathbb{R},\,+)$

What is the probability of all this happening? It's precisely equal to unity: for the above ideas are how we define the natural logarithm (i.e. as the ones defined above as opposed to logarithms with another base or even indeed other functions altogether).

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  • $\begingroup$ if $e^x$ arise when "the rate of quantity's variation is equal to or proportional to that quantity", then what does $log x$ represent for? $\endgroup$
    – Ooker
    Commented Nov 16, 2015 at 15:01
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    $\begingroup$ @Ooker Well, think of the chain rule: $\log$ composed with $e^x$ has to be the identity. So the chain rule says that their derivatives multiply to give $1$, the derivative of $x\maps\to x$. This means that the derivative is inversely proportional to the quantity the derivative is taken with respect to. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 18, 2015 at 0:30
  • $\begingroup$ thanks. I have another question. Why is it "a fairly common statement describing physical processes"? $\endgroup$
    – Ooker
    Commented Nov 23, 2015 at 9:10

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