Approximations for the natural logarithm from solenoid-toroid correspondence

Abstract

It seems reasonable that a toroid can be thought of approximately as a solenoid bent into a circle. The correspondence of the inductances of these two objects gives an approximation for the natural logarithm in terms of the average of two numbers. Different ways of averaging give different approximants. They are expressions simpler than Taylor polynomials, and are meaningful over a wider domain.