02/9/2011 Question of the day

Given: 2^p = 5^q = 10^r Express p in terms of q and r.

Hint: There are 2 ways to solve it, and maybe more, but the simple way is equate the 3 terms into a single variable, then manipulate 2, 5 and 10 (2*5 = 10), hope you get what I meant xD.

Comment: This question is almost the same as one question in the Spotlight reference book, and it cost me 5 days to work on it, but failed xD, of course I got the solution already, good luck to you =) and yeah, if you lucky enough, you might find a solution in Yahoo! because I asked this question before at Yahoo Answer haha xD

Credit: Additional Mathematics Pelangi Analysis Series SPM

Solution for 02/9/2011 Question of the day Since 2^p = 5^q = 10^r, that mean they all have a same value. We assume that same value as b. let, 2^p = b 2 = b^(1/p) ---- power to the 1/p on both side

5^q = b 5 = b^(1/q)

10^r = b 10 = b^(1/r)

2*5 = 10 b^(1/p) * b^(1/q) = b^(1/r) b^(1/p + 1/q) = b^(1/r) ---compare the power for both side of the equation 1/p + 1/q = 1/r q + p = pq/r qr + pr = pq pr pq = qr p (r-q) = qr p = qr / (r-q) ---- multiply the equation throughout with pq

Hope this helps