MCB 101 Lecture Handout

HOW TO USE SEMI-LOG GRAPH PAPER

a- How to Label Semi-log Graph Paper
Sometimes it's a nuisance to look up a bunch of logarithms of values so we make use of a
special type of graph paper which does this automatically. A
sheet of this paper is shown here. Notice that it has a linear
scale horizontally but a logarithmic scale vertically. It's called
"semilogarithmic paper". Notice that the vertical scale goes
from 1 to 10. This paper is called "one-cycle semi-logarithmic
paper". The significance of this name will become apparent in
a little while. Shown here is what is known as 3-cycle semilog
graph paper. You will notice that the vertical axis is very
peculiar as the numbers only go up from 1 to 9 and start all
over with 1 again, over and over. This is because the distances
indicate logarithmic distances. And you will remember that
there is no log of zero!
It has become clear that not many students know how to
label and use semi-log graph paper. There is no real trick
to it. The only thing that you need remember is that the
log axis runs in exponential cycles. Each cycle runs
linearly in 10's but the increase from one cycle to another
is an increase by a factor of 10. So within a cycle you
would have a series of: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90,
100 (this could also be 1-10, or 0.1-1, etc.). The next
cycle actually begins with 100 and progresses as 200,
300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000. The cycle after
that would be 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000, 7000,
8000, 9000, 10000. Here is a picture of semi-log graph
paper with 6 cycles on the y-axis.
Unfortunately, all of the numbers could not physically fit
on the graph. So some of the numbers have been
provided. Try to fill in the rest of numbers by continuing
what was started.
An alternative to using semi-log graph paper is to use
linear paper. Instead of plotting your linear data vs. the exponential data you would
actually take the log of the exponential data then plot it.

MCB 101 Lecture Handout

b- The Use of and Power of Using Semi-Log Graph Paper

This kind of graph paper allows you to graph exponential
data without having to translate your data into logarithms.
The paper does it for you! At stationery and university
bookstores, you can buy semilog graph paper with
anywhere from 1 to 5 or 7 cycles.
As shown in the next figure, you MIGHT consider the line
across the bottom as equal to one, and the next horizontal
line labelled as 1 should be ten, and the next 1 is 100 and
the top line is 1000. The lines' basic numeric value may
not be changed. The only thing allowed is the placement
of the decimal point - and they always differ by only one
decimal place per cycle. Thus you might have 0.001, 0.01,
0.1 and 1.0, or you might have 105, 106, 107 and 108. So
you can see that semilog graph paper can plot both very
small numbers as well as astronomical ones.

Let's see how this works and what the supposed power of the semilog graph is all about.
In brief it is terrific for plotting anything that is exponential.
This is a table of values of N/N0 which obey an exponential
relationship. In the right-hand column, I've looked up the natural
logarithms of N/N0

The graph shown in panel 4 is a plot of these values vs t.

Notice that this graph is on normal graph paper, not semilog paper. We'll use semi-log paper in a moment. As you
see, the graph is a straight line and its slope, and thus the
constant a, can be found. Pause for a moment and check the
calculation of a.
Now let's see how the semi-log paper simplifies all this as
shown in panel 5. The same data as in panel 3 is used here and, since our N/N0 data is all
between 1 and 10, we can use the numbers on the left-hand edge of the graph paper just
as they stand. All we have to do is plot the numbers as given. We don't have to find
logarithms, the paper does it for us. That's the beauty of semi-log paper. You have to
watch out how the paper is sub-divided, though. In this example, it's sub-divided in 0.1,

MCB 101 Lecture Handout

from 1 to 3, but in divisions of 0.2, from 3 to 5 and 0.5 from 5 to 10. Pause here and see
how this graph is plotted.
Now let's find a. Again, we must find the slope and
this will involve finding logarithms but only at two
points on whatever triangle we use to determine the
slope. Pause again and check the calculation of the
slope in panel 5.
Notice, in fact, we had to look up only one
logarithm in the slope calculation when we
remembered that the difference of two logs is the
log of the quotient. Of course, we got the same
value as before, a = 0.23 s-1 but with a lot less work.

Suppose, however, our data had been as shown in

the table of panel 6. Now the values of t are the
same but the values of N/N0 are 10 times larger.
What do we do now? The answer is that the decade
over which the vertical axis runs is quite arbitrary. It
can be 1 to 10 as previously, or it can be 10 to 100
which is what we need now, or 100 to 1000, or 0.1
to 1, and so on. Pause and see that you understand
how this graph in panel 6 was plotted.

Now let's suppose that you have the data given in

the table on panel 7. None of the semi-log paper
you have seen up to this point will work. You could
plot the first number, or the 2nd to 5th, or
the 5th to 7th, but you couldn't plot them all.
Your one-cycle paper will go only from 1 to
10, or 10 to 100, or 100 to 1000, in other
words, one decade. But now N/N0 goes over
parts of 3 decades, that is 1 to 1000. For this
you need three-cycle semi-log paper which
has been used here to plot this data. Pause
and check over the plot and calculation on
panel 7.

MCB 101 Lecture Handout

As you can see from this, you choose the number of cycles in the graph paper you use to
match the span of data which you have; semi-log paper comes in one, two, three, seven
cycles etc.
References:
http://escience.ws/b572/L2/L2.htm
http://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/tutorials/GLP/
http://www.msu.edu/course/fsc/441/semilabel.html
Accessed on 8/3/06 from:
www.cabnr.unr.edu/bego/images/How%20to%20use%20Semi.doc