Why is the decimal expansion of log2(3) infinite?

https://arbital.com/p/log2_of_3_never_ends

by Nate Soares Jun 20 2016 updated Jul 4 2016

Because 2 and 3 are relatively prime.


[summary: It takes more than one but less than two [binary_digit binary digits] to encode a 3-digit, so log2(3) must be between 1 and 2. (Wait, what?). It takes more than 15 but less than 16 binary digits to encode ten 3-digits, so 10log2(3) must be between 15 and 16, which means 1.5<log2(3)<1.6. It takes more than 158 but less than 159 binary digits to encode a hundred 3-digits, so 1.58<log2(3)<1.59. And so on. Because no power of 3 is ever equal to any power of 2, 10nlog2(3) will never quite be a whole number, no matter how large n is.]

log2(3) starts with

1.5849625007211561814537389439478165087598144076924810604557526545410982277943585625222804749180882420909806624750591673437175524410609248221420839506216982994936575922385852344415825363027476853069780516875995544737266834624612364248850047581810676961316404807130823233281262445248670633898014837234235783662478390118977006466312634223363341821270106098049177472541357330110499026268818251703576994712157113638912494135752192998699040767081539505404488360

and goes on indefinitely. Why is it 1.58… in particular? Well, it takes more than one but less than two [binary_digit binary digits] to encode a 3-digit, so log2(3) must be between 1 and 2. (Wait, what?). It takes more than 15 but less than 16 binary digits to encode ten 3-digits, so 10log2(3) must be between 15 and 16, which means 1.5<log2(3)<1.6. It takes more than 158 but less than 159 binary digits to encode a hundred 3-digits, so 1.58<log2(3)<1.59. And so on. Because no power of 3 is ever equal to any power of 2, 10nlog2(3) will never quite be a whole number, no matter how large n is.

Thus, log2(3) has no finite decimal expansion, because 3 is not a rational [-power] of 2. Using this argument, we can see that logb(x) is an integer if (and only if) x is a power of b, and that logb(x) only has a finite expansion if some power of x is a power of b.


Comments

Joe Zeng

8 is not a power of 4, but log48 is 1.5. The only thing you prove with 3 is not a power of 2 is that log23 is not an integer.

Nate Soares

Fixed, thanks.