Intermediate Algebra – Student Workbook – Second Edition 2013

Lesson 4a – Introduction to Logarithms
Mini-Lesson
Problem 4 WORKED EXAMPLE - COMPUTE LOGARITHMS WITH BASES
OTHER THAN 10
Compute each of the following logarithms and verify your result with an exponential “because”
statement.
a) 1 1
2
log
3
log
3
log
2 3
3 so 1 because
log 3
2
9 3
9
1
3 2
9
b) 1 1
2
log
6
log
6
log
2 6
6 so
36 6
1
log 6
2
36
because
6 2
1
36
c) because 5 0 = 1
d) (does not exist) because
There is no power of 7 that will give a
result of 0.
Problem 5 YOU TRY - COMPUTE LOGARITHMS WITH BASES OTHER THAN 10
Compute each of the following logarithms and verify your result with an exponential “because”
statement.
a) because
b) because
c) because
d) because
e) √ because
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