Art of Problem Solving
AoPS Online
Math texts, online classes, and more
for students in grades 5-12.
Visit AoPS Online ‚
Books for Grades 5-12 Online Courses
Beast Academy
Engaging math books and online learning
for students ages 6-13.
Visit Beast Academy ‚
Books for Ages 6-13 Beast Academy Online
AoPS Academy
Small live classes for advanced math
and language arts learners in grades 2-12.
Visit AoPS Academy ‚
Find a Physical Campus Visit the Virtual Campus

User:Temperal/The Problem Solver's Resource2


Introduction | Other Tips and Tricks | Methods of Proof | You are currently viewing page 2.

Exponentials and Logarithms

This is just a quick review of logarithms and exponents; it's elementary content.

Definitions

  • Exponentials: Do you really need this one? If $a=\underbrace{b\times b\times b\times \cdots \times b}_{x\text{ }b'\text{s}}$, then $a=b^x$
  • Logarithms: If $b^x=a$, then $\log_b{a}=x$. Note that a logarithm in base e, i.e. $\log_e{x}=a$ is denoted as $\ln{x}=a$, or the natural logarithm of x. If no base is specified, then a logarithm is assumed to be in base 10.

Rules of Exponentiation

$a^x \cdot a^y=a^{x+y}$

$(a^x)^y=a^{xy}$

$\frac{a^x}{a^y}=a^{x-y}$

$a^0=1$, where $a\ne 0$.

These should all be trivial and easily proven by the reader.

Rules of Logarithms

$\log_b b=1$

This can be seen by writing as $b^1=b$.

$\log_b xy=\log_b x +\log_b y$

$\log_b x^y=y\cdot \log_b x$

$\log_b \frac{x}{y} =\log_b x-\log_b y$

$\log_b a=\frac{1}{\log_a b}$

$\log_b a=\frac{\log_x a}{\log_x b}$, where x is a constant.

All of the above should be proven by the reader without too much difficulty - substitution and putting things in exponential form will help.

$\log_1 a$ and $\log_0 a$ are undefined, as there is no $x$ such that $1^x=a$ except when $a=1$ (in which case there are infinite $x$) and likewise with $0$.

Back to page 1 | Continue to page 3

Retrieved from "https://artofproblemsolving.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:Temperal/The_Problem_Solver%27s_Resource2&oldid=74749"