document.write( "Question 34699: I am having a problem solving this problem, #33 in Dr Rapalje's book, \"Stepping through college algebra, one step at a time.\" log b (x-6)- log b (x)= log b (x-4). I have tried log b x-6 over x-4 = x, x-6 = x(x-4), x-6= x^2-4x, set to 0=x^2-4x-x+6, 0=x^2-5x+6, 0=(x-3) (x-2), x=3,x=2 is the answer I got, but it doesn't match the answer in the back of the book, which is 0, reject 3,2. Thank you. \n" ); document.write( "
Algebra.Com's Answer #20958 by stanbon(75887)![]() ![]() ![]() You can put this solution on YOUR website! log(x-6)/x]= log(x-4) \n" ); document.write( "Take the anti-log of both sides to get: \n" ); document.write( "[(x-6)/x)]=x-4 \n" ); document.write( "Cross multiply to get: \n" ); document.write( "x-6=x(x-4) \n" ); document.write( "x-6=x^2-4x \n" ); document.write( "x^2-5x+6=0 \n" ); document.write( "(x-3)(x-2)=0 \n" ); document.write( "x=3 or x=2 \n" ); document.write( "Check them out: neither works because you get negative values in the original where they cannot be in the original equation. \n" ); document.write( "The 0 in your answer book might mean 0 solutions. \n" ); document.write( "0 certainly is not a solution. \n" ); document.write( "Cheers, \n" ); document.write( "Stan H. \n" ); document.write( " |