Home page for accesible maths Math 101 Chapter 2: Functions of a real variable

Style control - access keys in brackets

Font (2 3) - + Letter spacing (4 5) - + Word spacing (6 7) - + Line spacing (8 9) - +

2.36 Proofs of the properties of logs

(i) this is the definition;

(ii) this is the definition, but note that we need x>0x>0 to define log⁡x\log x.

(iii) Let x=eax=e^{a} and y=eby=e^{b} where a=log⁡xa=\log x and b=log⁡yb=\log y; then

x⁢y=ea⁢eb=ea+bxy=e^{a}e^{b}=e^{a+b}

so

log⁡(x⁢y)=a+b=log⁡x+log⁡y.\log(xy)=a+b=\log x+\log y.

(iv) First let x=eax=e^{a}, so a=log⁡x→∞a=\log x\rightarrow\infty as x→∞x\rightarrow\infty.

Next letx→0+x\rightarrow 0+ so 1/x→∞1/x\rightarrow\infty hence

log⁡x=-log⁡1/x→-∞.\log x=-\log 1/x\rightarrow-\infty.