Solve the equation ln(x)+ln(x-3)+ln(2x-6)=0ln(x)+ln(x3)+ln(2x6)=0?

1 Answer
Jul 30, 2017

x ~~ 3.3844 x3.3844

Explanation:

We have:

ln(x)+ln(x-3)+ln(2x-6)=0 ln(x)+ln(x3)+ln(2x6)=0

If we look at the graph of:

y= ln(x)+ln(x-3)+ln(2x-6) y=ln(x)+ln(x3)+ln(2x6)
graph{ln(x)+ln(x-3)+ln(2x-6) [-10, 10, -5, 5]}

Then we appear to have a solution, alpha ~~ 3.5α3.5

First note that for each individual logarithm to exist we require xx to simultaneously satisfy the following inequalities:

ln(x) in RR => x gt 0
ln(x-2) in RR => x-3 gt 0 => x gt 3
ln(2x-5) in RR => 2x-6 gt 0 => x gt 3

Thus x gt 3

We can find this solution algebraically:

ln(x)+ln(x-3)+ln(2x-6)=0

:. ln{x(x-3)(2x-6)}=0
:. x(x-3)(2x-6) = e^0
:. x(x-3)(2x-6) = 1

And we can multiply out the expression to get:

x(2x^2-6x-6x+18) = 1
:. 2x^3-12x^2+18x = 1
:. 2x^3-12x^2+18x - 1 = 0

As this cubic does not factorise we solve it numerically:

graph{2x^3-12x^2+18x - 1 [-10, 10, -5, 5]}

And we get three real solutions:

x ~~ 0.0578, 2.5579, 3.3844

From earlier we established that x gt 3, thus we can eliminate two of these solutions leaving:

x ~~ 3.3844