How do you solve 10^(4x -1) = 1000 and find any extraneous solutions?

1 Answer
May 5, 2018

The only solution is x=1.

Explanation:

Rewrite 1000 as 10^3:

10^(4x-1)=1000

10^(4x-1)=10^3

Now, since the bases are the same, the exponents must be equal to each other:

10^color(red)(4x-1)=10^color(red)3

4x-1=3

4x=4

x=1

This is the only solution. We can verify it by plugging it back into the original equation:

10^(4(1)-1)=1000

10^(4-1)=1000

10^3=1000

1000=1000

Hope this helped!