Interesting problem in logarithms

1.5k Views Asked by At

I know this place isn't for math problems/homework, and believe me I've been trying for a long time to solve this problem (45 mins to 1 hour) and besides I think many would find this useful or at least interesting, so here it is :

If $\log_6 15 = a$ and $\log_{12} 18 = b$ what is $\log_{25}24$? (The answer must be in terms of a and b)

1

There are 1 best solutions below

9
On BEST ANSWER

Use the identity

$$\log_x y=\frac{\ln y}{\ln x}$$

Then your problem says that

$$\frac{\ln 3+\ln 5}{\ln 2+\ln 3}=a$$

$$\frac{\ln 2+2\ln 3}{2\ln 2+\ln 3}=b$$

and you need to find

$$\frac{3\ln2+\ln 3}{2\ln 5}$$

in terms of $a$ and $b$.


We can simplify things a bit if we divide the numerators and denominators of all the fractions by $\ln 5$ and let $x=\frac{\ln 2}{\ln 5},\ y=\frac{\ln 3}{\ln 5}$. We then know that

$$\frac{y+1}{x+y}=a$$ $$\frac{x+2y}{2x+y}=b$$

and we want to find

$$\frac{3x+y}{2}$$

We now have two simultaneous equations with two variables. Simplifying the equations we get the linear equations

$$\begin{array}{rrrrr} ax & + & (a-1)y & = & 1 \\ (2b-1)x & + & (b-2)y & = & 0 \\ \end{array}$$

Using Cramer's rule, we get

$$x=\frac{2-b}{ab+a-2b+1}$$ $$y=\frac{2b-1}{ab+a-2b+1}$$

Substituting these into our formula, we get

$$\log_{25}24=\frac{5-b}{2ab+2a-4b+2}$$

This can be checked with a calculator, defining $a$ and $b$ as in your problem and calculating both my final expression and $\log_{25}24$. Those figures agree and are both $0.987317934353$.