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Ledgeknow
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Ternary (sometimes called trinary) is the base-3 numeral system. Analogous to a bit, a ternary digit is a trit (trinary digit). One trit contains log(base 2) 3 (about 1.58496) bits of information.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ternary_numeral_system
The last sentence in the quote from the Wikipedia has recently intrigued me. I understand that the logarithm function returns a value which when used as an exponent to the base n gives the original input value.
Can someone elaborate on the last sentence with a little bit more verbalization of why the log function was used to derive how many bits of information there is in a trit. What does it mean 1.58496 bits?