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How do you write an effective explanation to explain this problem?

How do you write an effective explanation to explain this problem?-example-1
User Cork Kochi
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1 Answer

8 votes

The error happens in the last line.

The relevant log rule is ln(A) - ln(B) = ln(A/B)

The issue is that the 0 isn't ln(0), so that 0 cannot be thrown into the natural log like that.

What we can do is this set of steps

ln(3x) - 0

ln(3x) - ln(1)

ln(3x/1) ... applying the log rule mentioned

ln(3x)

But these steps are a needlessly overcomplicating things. We can simply go from ln(3x)-0 to ln(3x) in one step. Subtracting off zero doesn't change ln(3x) at all.

--------------------------

Let's continue the steps to solve for x.

ln(x^2) = ln(3x)

x^2 = 3x

x^2-3x = 0

x(x-3) = 0

x = 0 or x-3 = 0

x = 0 or x = 3

Those are the two possible solutions.

However, x = 0 isn't valid because it's not in the domain of ln(x^2). In other words, ln(0) isn't defined. The domain of y = ln(x) is x > 0

This means that x = 3 is the only solution.

User Mr Alihoseiny
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8.0k points