Tables of Four-figure Logarithms

Abstract

FOR many scientific computations it is sufficiently accurate to work to four figures, but there have been complaints that the usual tables of four-figure logarithms are not accurate in the fourth figure. Thus, log 1.019 is given as 0.0080, whereas it ought to be 0.0082. The errors are met with only in numbers from 1000 to 2000. In consequence of this, some such tables are accompanied by a table specially intended for numbers between 1000 and 2000. Many physicists and chemists refuse to use four-figure tables for this reason, and advocate the use of five-figure tables, in spite of their greater size and the waste of time.