<p>So today my math teacher was going over logarithms in my calc class and she told us that the base of a log had to be a positive number. I asked her why that was because log(base-2)-8=3 is a true statement when put in exponential form. Her answer was "It just is. People make up rules." Okay so clearly she didn't know the answer at all, but instead of being honest and saying "I don't know, I'll have to look it up," she rationalized why she didn't know it and made herself look stupid. Does anyone actually know the answer to this question? It's not on wikipedia and I don't want to look farther.</p>
<p>I can’t believe I’m about to do this…</p>
<p>[Why</a> isn’t the logarithm of a negative number defined? and why can’t the base be negative? - Yahoo! Answers](<a href=“http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/question/index?qid=20070629215531AAG6aZT]Why”>http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/question/index?qid=20070629215531AAG6aZT)</p>
<p>Hah! I apologize sincerely. I’ll make sure to google better next time.</p>
<p>I got a 45% on my log test :/</p>