Lo-gis'tic or Lo-gis'tic-al, a.
a. [Fr. logistique, from Gr. λογιστικός, skilled in calculating; λογίζεσθαι, to calculate, from λόγος, word, number, reckoning.]
- Logical. [Obs.] “Logistic operations.” Berkeley.
- (Math.) Sexagesimal, or made on the scale of 60; as, logistic or sexagesimal arithmetic.
Logistic logarithms, or proportional logarithms, certain logarithmic numbers used for facilitating the calculation of the fourth term of a proportion of which one of the terms is a given constant quantity, commonly one hour, while the other terms are expressed in minutes and seconds; in which case the logistic logarithm of a given number of seconds, or minutes and seconds, is the excess of the logarithm of 3600, the seconds in an hour, over the logarithm of the given seconds. They were devised to abbreviate certain astronomical computations, but are less used than formerly, since an arrangement for hours, minutes, and seconds, has been introduced into tables of common logarithms.