Lesson 11

This Math Talk encourages students to think about the relationship between base 10 logarithms and exponential expressions. Students have a chance to rewrite decimals, fractions, and base 10 numbers as powers of 10 in order to see which power of 10 the number is equal to and so find its base 10 logarithm. They will use this skill later in the lesson and in future lessons in order to calculate or estimate different logarithms. 

Remind students that logarithms with no specified base are base-10 logarithms.

Display one problem at a time. Give students quiet think time for each problem and ask them to give a signal when they have an answer and a strategy. Keep all problems displayed throughout the talk. Follow with a whole-class discussion.

Ask students to share their strategies for each problem. Record and display their responses for all to see. To involve more students in the conversation, consider asking:

• “Who can restate \(\underline{\hspace{.5in}}\)’s reasoning in a different way?”

• “Did anyone have the same strategy but would explain it differently?”

• “Did anyone solve the problem in a different way?”

• “Does anyone want to add on to \(\underline{\hspace{.5in}}\)’s strategy?”

• “Do you agree or disagree? Why?”

If not already mentioned, make sure students recall that numbers such as 0.1 and \(\frac{1}{1,000}\) are still powers of 10 but they have negative exponents (that is, 0.1 is \(10^{\text -1}\), and \(\frac {1}{1,000}\) is \(\frac{1}{10^3}\) or \(10^{\text-3}\)). This suggests that the logarithms of numbers that are less than 1 would be negative.

In this activity, students compare logarithmic expressions as they play a game of “war” in groups of 2. Students receive cards containing logarithms in bases 2, 5, and 10. The numbers in the expressions are written in all forms, including decimals, fractions, whole numbers, and exponential expressions. To compare the logarithms on the cards, they may:

• determine if an expression is negative, zero, or positive, without finding the exact or estimated value
• estimate the value of an expression such as \(\log_2 10\) by using logarithms with integer values
• convert decimals to fractions to help find the logarithms

As students preview the deck by putting the cards in order from least to greatest, listen for how they decide on relative values of the cards. Students should not use calculators at this point.

Arrange students in groups of 2. The first 20 cards in the blackline master show log expressions with integer values. That last 10, which are labeled “challenge,” have non-integer values. Give each group only the first 20, the entire set of 30, or differentiate by giving some groups only the first 20 and some groups all of the cards.

Before students start playing, ask them to turn all the cards face up, and work with their partner to put them in order from least to greatest. The game will go more smoothly if students have a chance to gain familiarity with the contents of the card deck and evaluate each card in a lower-stakes interaction. This step may be skipped if students are comfortable determining the value of logarithmic expressions.

Students may struggle making estimates to compare expressions. Ask them questions such as "Is the expression greater than or less than 0? How do you know? Is the expression greater than or less than 1? How do you know?" Make sure they understand that they only need to decide which is bigger; they do not need to calculate exact values. 

Much of the discussions will happen in groups, as students put the cards in order before playing the game and while playing the game. Invite groups to share any insightful or useful strategies for comparing any two cards that came up before or during the game.

This activity has two aims: to familiarize students with the log function on a calculator, and to reinforce the fact that most values obtained on a calculator, just like those in a log table, are approximations.

The questions involve finding only base 10 logarithms. This is partly to focus the exploration, and partly because many calculators can evaluate only logarithms in base 10 and base \(e\), or require the user to perform steps to change the base before calculating logarithms in other bases. Some calculators allow easily calculating logs with any base. If the devices used in your class allow for this, show students how it works.

The purpose of the last question is to prompt students to think about reasonable values of the logarithms and to not simply enter numbers into the calculator. Monitor for students with clear estimation strategies to share during the whole-class discussion. Beyond reasoning that a log value is between two whole numbers, students don't yet have a good means of making an accurate estimate, which is fine. For example, they might be able to say that \(\log 90\) should be quite close to 2, but it is not expected that they could say how close.

Keep students in groups of 2.

Explain to students that before calculators were widely available, finding logarithms involved using tables like the ones we saw in earlier lessons. Today, all scientific calculators have the capacity to calculate base 10 logarithms at a minimum. Some calculators can calculate logarithms in any base, making log tables essentially obsolete.

Make sure students understand how the log function on their calculator works and can find log values correctly.

Invite previously selected students to share how they estimated log values before using a calculator. Emphasize that having a sense of what value would be reasonable before entering a logarithm in a calculator can help us notice any errors.