Exercises in Logarithm

Exercise 1: Solve the following equations giving answers correct to three significant figures:

a) log4(3x2- 15) = log4 2x+ log4(x+1)

b)  
log 5 3x 2  2  2  log 5
5
x

Exercise 2:

a) If log b A = 0.5 and log b B = 0.4 then what does log b ( A . B2 ) equal to?
b) If log a 2  x and log a 5  y , find each of the following in terms of x and y.

i) log a 20 ii) log10 2.5

Exercise 3:

a) i) Simplify log 3  2 log 7 to a simple log.

1 log 3
ii) Hence, show that the solution for 2x
 3 x 1 is x  
7 log 147

b) i) Simplify 27 log9 (81x1)

ii) Hence or otherwise find the exact value for x if 27 log9 (81x1)  3
Exercise 4: Let y = log3 z, where z is a function of x. The diagram shows the straight line L, which
represents the graph of y against x.

y
L

–2 –1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 x

(a) Using the graph or otherwise, estimate the value of x when z = 9.

(b) The line L passes through the point 1, log3 5  . Its gradient is 2. Find an expression for
 9
z in terms of x.