log help

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November 17th 2005, 04:08 PM
floridaboatkid

log help

Been trying to figure this out but haven't had any luck

There is eactly one real number k for which the equation
(log3x)(log5x) =k
has only one real solution for x. What is the value of x.
November 18th 2005, 01:49 AM
CaptainBlack

Quote:

Originally Posted by floridaboatkid

Been trying to figure this out but haven't had any luck

There is eactly one real number k for which the equation
(log3x)(log5x) =k
has only one real solution for x. What is the value of x.

I am guessing but I would bet ready money that your question should
read somethink like:

"There is eactly one real number k for which the equation
(log_3(x))(log_5(x)) =k
has only one real solution for x. What is the value of x"

Where log_b denotes the log to base b.

So lets assume your question is:

"There is eactly one real number k for which the equation

$log_3 (x).log_5 (x)\ =\ k$
has only one real solution for x. What is the value of x"

as $log_b(x)\ =\ log_e(x)/log_e(b)$ your equation becomes:

$\frac{log_e (x).log_e (x)}{log_e(3).log_e(5)}\ =\ k$

or:

$(log_e(x))^2\ =\ k.log_e(3).log_e(5)$

Then the condition of the problem implies that $k\ =\ 0$
as otherwise there will be two solution for $x$ , so:

$log_e(x)\ =\ 0$

or
$x\ =\ 1$

Quite Easily Done (aka QED :) )

RonL
November 20th 2005, 02:30 PM
floridaboatkid

no they are base 10

the equation is written in log base 10
November 20th 2005, 08:34 PM
CaptainBlack

Quote:

Originally Posted by floridaboatkid

the equation is written in log base 10

OK, then lets rewrite your problem so that it is unambiguous:

Quote:

There is exactly one real number $k$ for which the equation:

$(log_{10}(3x))(log_{10}(5x)) =k$
has only one real solution for $x$ . What is the value of $x$ .

Now this equation only makes sense with:

$x\ \epsilon\ (0,\ \infty).$
Also as:

$x\ \rightarrow\ 0\ ,\ (log_{10}(3x))(log_{10}(5x))\ \rightarrow\ \infty,$
and

$x\ \rightarrow\ \infty\ ,\ (log_{10}(3x))(log_{10}(5x))\ \rightarrow\ \infty.$

So an equation:

$(log_{10}(3x))(log_{10}(5x))\ =\ k$
has either multiple solutions, zero solutions, or when $k$ is the global
minimum of $(log_{10}(3x))(log_{10}(5x))$ exactly one solution.

So your problem becomes find the $x$ which corresponds to the global minimum of:

$y(x)\ =\ (log_{10}(3x))(log_{10}(5x))$

RonL
November 21st 2005, 01:23 AM
CaptainBlack

1 Attachment(s)

Now our problem is to find the global minimum of:

$<br /> y(x)\ =\ (log_{10}(3x))(log_{10}(5x))<br />$

The first thing we do is to sketch the graph of this
function. A couple of rather pathetic Excel plots of
this are shown in the attachment to this post.

From these plots it is clear that the minimum we seek
is the sort which is obtained by differentiating and
setting the resulting derivative to zero, that is we seek
the solution of:

$<br /> \frac{dy}{dx}\ =\ 0<br />$

which should be a routine task, which I will leave to you.

RonL