logaritham or log (short form) is a function which is inverse of power function.
If x and y are two numbers related by y = ax, where a is a positive number, then x = loga(y). It is read as log of y to the base a is x.
Antilog is inverse of log or power function.
For an example 100 = 102.
So log10(100) = 2.
It is used to convert multiplication and division into addition and subtraction and hence make calculation easier.
For example if x = 10.38*24.73/0.0312 then
loga(x) = loga(10.38)+loga(24.73)-loga(0.0312)
loga(x) = 1.016+1.393-(-1.506) = 3.915
x = antilog(3.915) = 103.915 = 8227