Help with exponential equation

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gregarious16

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Dec 13, 2012
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Hi, I was having trouble with the following problem:

e^(x)-4e^(x)=0

After puzzling through for some time, I did this
(e^x)(1-4)=0 factoring out e^x and leaving me with e^x =0

I'm at a loss for this particular equation and not really sure where to start so any help would be appreciated.
 
This equation my be simplified to:

\(\displaystyle -3e^x=0\)

for which no real solutions exist. The expression on the left is negative for all real x.
 
gregarious16 said:
Hi, I was having trouble with the following problem:

e^(x)-4e^(x)=0

After puzzling through for some time, I did this
(e^x)(1-4)=0 factoring out e^x and leaving me with e^x =0

I'm at a loss for this particular equation and not really sure where to start so any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Another approach (to see what is happening graphically): Consider the function f(x) = e^x. Graph it. Do you see any x-intercepts? If not, then the eqn e^x = 0 has no solutions.
 
Thanks for the help guys. I was leaning toward that but I seem to have a quirk about accepting "no solutions" as a solution.

Thanks again!!
 
It cannot be accurately stated here that there is no answer.

The answer is "no solution."

"No answer" and "no solution" are not equivalent to each other.

"No solution" is analogous to the empty set (or null set).

The empty set can be an answer.

Edit:

There is a class of problems that we can never determine the answers to.**

Of these, there is a set that have no solutions.

The rest of the problems compose a set of problems that have solutions.


** Either it is impossible within a given system to determine the nature
of the answers, or due to the limitations of computability by humans and
computers, for example, the answers are out of reach.

I hope I was not overly simplistic here.
 
Last edited:
"no answer" is equivalent to "I am taking the fifth...."
 
And it is clear that some people here have entirely too much time on their hands!
 
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