Illustrated · 1 min
How to find the equation of a log graph
So we know how to take an equation and transform it into a graph. Now let's think about the other direction.

Graph created with Desmos
Let's try to find the equation of this graph! The only additional information we get is that the base of the logarithm is .
We can start by writing down all the information that we can use from the graph:
- The base is .
- There is a vertical asymptote at .
- The function goes through the points , , and .
Next, we know that a general formula for this graph should look like: We're given that , but we still need to figure out and .
We can figure out by reasoning about properties of logarithms. We know that log functions are only defined for positive numbers; this means that in our function.
Since we have an asymptote at , we know that (or equivalently, ).
We can combine and to get: So now our function looks like this:
Finally, we can figure out by plugging in points into our function! Let's try it with :
And we have our function!



