Natural Logarithm - History

History

The first mention of the natural logarithm was by Nicholas Mercator in his work Logarithmotechnia published in 1668, although the mathematics teacher John Speidell had already in 1619 compiled a table on the natural logarithm. It was formerly also called hyperbolic logarithm, as it corresponds to the area under a hyperbola. It is also sometimes referred to as the Napierian logarithm, although the original meaning of this term is slightly different.