Quantitative Reasoning : Logarithms
Question
How many digits will the number 3
200 have if the value of log
103 = 0.4771?
- 95
- 94
- 96
- 91
Correct Answer
Choice (3). 96 digits
Explanatory Answers
The logarithm of any number has two components. The characteristic and the mantissa.
Take for example, log
103, the value of log
103 = 0.4771.
Here, the 0 in the integral part is known as the characteristic and the value .4771 is known as the mantissa.
The value of log
1030 is 1.4771.
Notice that the value of mantissa remained the same while that of the characteristic changed from 0 to 1.
Given the log of a number, we will be able to find out the number of digits that the original number had by knowing the value of the characteristic.
If the characteristic is '0', then the number is a single digit number
If the characteristic is '1', then the number is a two-digit number
If the characteristic is '5', then the number is a six-digit number
In the given problem, we need to find the number of digits of 3
200.
If we take log we get log
103
200 = 200(log
103) = 200 (0.4771) = 95.42.
Here, the characteristic is 95. Therefore, the number will have 96 digits.
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