A logarithmic timeline, based on logarithmic scale, was developed by Heinz von Foerster, the philosopher and physicist. He was attempting to create a table of historical data, and realised that the closer to the present he got the more events he could put in the table. He therefore developed the logarithimic timeline in order to shrink the information in such a way that the same density of information was preserved, whilst at the same time allowing him to accurately show the whole span of history. An example of a table based on these principles is shown below. Von Foerster later used the table as one of the starting points of his argument that memory also declines in an expoential manner.
Example of a logarithmic timeline
In this table each row is defined in years ago, that is, years before the presentdate, with the most recent at the top of the chart. Each event is an occurrence of an observed or inferred process.
A logarithmic scale is a scale of measurement that uses the logarithm of a physical quantity instead of the quantity itself.
Logarithmic scales are either defined for ratios of the underlying quantity, or one has to agree to measure the quantity in fixed units.
The base of the logarithm also has to be specified, unless the scale's value is considered to be a dimensional quantity expressed in generic (indefinite-base) logarithmic units.
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