Precalculus 1/12/09

Student quote of the day..

"e ain't no friend of mine" - Kush

Today we learned how to solve exponential equations. The main strategy we use is to take the logarithm of both sides. Here's an example.



take the log of both sides

use a log property

solve for x


Here's another example involving the number e...



since the base is e, taking the natural log of both sides

use a log property

the ln e = 1

get x by itself using algebra


other examples can be found on Mr. Corn's web page here

Helpful hints...Can use calculator to check by getting decimal answer, storing a variable(use sto key), and substitute into original problem for x