I've just heard about these terms. Could someone elaborate on what's their use is? And plus could you explain it using a few examples?
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$\begingroup$''Mantissa'' is a latin word which means '' something that is added ''. In the context of logarithms it indicate the decimal part of the logarithm of a number, while the ''characteristic'' is the integer part.
When I was young there were not home computers ( it seems incredible ?) and the logarithms was calculated using little books called ''logarithm tables''. In such books there was tabulated the mantissas, with some approximation, corresponding to a sequence of digits as:
Number $135$ : $\rightarrow$ mantissa $130334$
So, using the properties of the logarithms we was able to express the $log_{10}$ of all the numbers with these digits, simply counting the digits of the entire part of the given number :
$\log_{10}135=2.130334$
$\log_{10}13.5=1.130334$
$\log_{10}1350=3.130334$
Can you see what is the rule here? And where comes from?
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