>> Some people use log to mean base-10. Some use it to mean an unspecified
>> base. But (arguably) *most* geniune maths sources use it to mean the
>> natural logarithm.
> 
> Just looked at wikipedia - it seems you can tell a person's primary field by the
> base they expect log x to be in!
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logarithm#Notations_of_bases_and_implicit_bases

Crazy stuff, eh?

>> It's a standard convention.
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime-counting_function
> 
> I did not know that :-)

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the people working on 
number theory and investigating the properties of prime numbers didn't 
need to know about the circumference of a circle. ;-)

I've also seen pi used more than once as a general variable, rather than 
a function name or a mathematical constant. This is why you see phrases 
like "e^(i x) where e is the base of natural logarithms and i is the 
imaginary unit". Because otherwise it's horrifyingly ambiguous.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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