If you are studying logarithms it is reasonably safe to assume that you’re already reasonably familiar with index rules; those shortcuts that allow for swift calculation of exponents when dealing with equal bases. The log laws are really just a rearrangement of these.

First, multiplying. Since when you multiply terms with the same base you add the indices, the log of a product is equal to the sum of the logs of the factors of that product. This is best demonstrated starting with the index rule and working through an example.

\begin {aligned}a^m \times a^n &= a^{m+n} \\ 8 \times 16 &= 128 \\2^3 \times 2^4 &= 2^7 \\ \log_2{8} + \log_2{16} &= \log_2{128} \\ \log_a{m} + \log_a{n} &= \log_a{mn}\end{aligned}Index / log law for multiplication / addition

Second, division. As the inverse of multiplication this one is now hopefully easy to spot: subtracting the parts. The log of a quotient is equal to the difference between the logs of the dividend and the divisor (numerator and denominator).

\begin {aligned}\frac{a^m}{a^n} &= a^{m-n} \\ \log{\frac{m}{n}}&= \log{m} - \log{n}\end{aligned}Index / log law for division / subtraction

Using this rule for division it follows that we should be able to find the value of a logarithm of 1. As any value divided by itself is 1, choosing a value expressed in index form allows us to apply the previous rule.

\begin {aligned}\frac{a^b}{a^b} &= 1 \\ a^{b-b} &= 1 \\ \log_a{1} &= b-b \\ \log_a{1} &= 0 \end {aligned}The log of 1 in any base is 0

Terms with indices raised to a power are an extension of the multiplication of indices already described. This approach can be applied to the addition of logarithms:

\begin {aligned}(a^m)^n &= a^m \times a^m \times \ldots \times a^m \\ \log_a{m^n} &= \log_a{m} + \log_a{m} + \ldots + \log_a{m} \\ \log_a{m^n} &= n \log_a{m}\end {aligned}Powers in logarithms