Title: Word Problem: Logarithmic Functions

Reference: http://www.sosmath.com/algebra/logs/log5/log51/log51.html

Objectives:

 define 'logarithm'
 identify logarithm notation/functions
 solve logarithms using specific steps

Discussion:

A. (Interest Rate Word Problems)

1. To solve an exponential or logarithmic word problems, convert the narrative to

Example 1: A $1,000 deposit is made at a bank that pays 12% compounded annually.
How much will you have in your account at the end of 10 years?

Explanation and Solution:

* At the end of the first year, you will have the $1,000 you had at the beginning of the year
plus the interest on the $1,000 or .12 ($1,000). At the end of the year you will have $1,000
+ 1,000(.12). This can also be written $1,000 (1 + .12).

* At the end of the second year, you will have the $1,000 (1 + .12) you had at the beginning
of the year plus the 12% interest on the $1,000 (1 + .12). At the end of the second year
you will have

$1,000 (1 + .12) + (.12) $1,000 (1 + .12).

This can also be $1,000 (1 + .12) (1 + .12) written. Another way of writing this is to write
the balance at the end of the second year as. $1,000 (1 + .12) 2

*At the end of the third year, you will have the $1,000 (1 + .12) you had at the beginning
of the year plus the 12% interest on the $1,000 (1 + .12). At the end of the third year you
will have

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 $1,000 (1 + .12) 2 + (.12) $1,000 (1 + .12) 2

This can also be written $1,000 (1 + .12) 2 (1 + .12). Another way of writing this is to write
the balance at the end of the third year as $1,000 + (1 + .12) 3

* By now you should notice some common things in each end-of-year balance. For one
thing, the exponent is the same as the year. The base is always 1 + rate or 1 + .12. The
$1,000 will always stay the same in the formula.

Now we can write the balance at the end of 10 years as $1,000 (1 + .12) 10 which can be
simplified to

$1,000 (3.1058482084) = $3,105.8482083

rounded to $3,105.85.

Example 2: An $1,000 investment is made in a trust fund at an annual percentage rate

Answer: It would take about 5 years and 10 months for the investment to reach $2,000.

Explanation and Solution:

Step 1: The annual percentage rate is the rate that you would receive if the interest
was calculated at the end of the year. This means there was no compounding
during the year.

Step 2: Determine what the interest rate would be per month by dividing the 12%
by 12 months:

Step 3: From Example 2 above, we know that we can find the balance after t years
as follows:

We use 12 t because there are 12 months in every year.

Step 4: Replace the right side of the above equation with $2,000:

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 Step 5: We must isolate the exponential term; therefore, divide both sides by
$1,000:

Step 6: Take the natural logarithm of both sides of the above equation:

Step 7: Simplify the left side of the above equation:

Step 8: Divide both sides of the above equation by :

Step 9: Note that 5.80505974113 years can be written 5 Years +

form you get 9.6607 months. This indicates that it takes 5 years
and about 10 months for the $1,000 to reach $2,000.

B. (Population Word Problems)

To solve an exponential or logarithmic word problem, convert the narrative to an

Example 1: Suppose that you are observing the behavior of cell duplication in a lab. In
one experiment, you started with one cell and the cells doubled every minute. Write an
equation with base 2 to determine the number (population) of cells after one hour.

Solution and Explanations:

First record your observations by making a table with two columns: one column for the
time and one column for the number of cells. The number of cells (size of population)
depends on the time. If you were to graph your findings, the points would be formed by

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(specific time, number of cells at the specific time). For example, at t = 0, there is 1 cell,
and the corresponding point is (0, 1). At t = 1, there are 2 cells, and the corresponding
point is (1, 2). At t = 2, there are 4 cells, and the corresponding point is (2, 4). At t = 3,
there are 8 cells, and the corresponding point is (3, 8).

It appears that the relationship between the two parts of the point is exponential. At time
0, the number of cells is 1 or 20 = 1. After 1 minute, when t = 1, there are two cells or 21 =
2. After 2 minutes, when t = 2, there are 4 cells or 22 = 4.

Therefore, one formula to estimate the number of cells (size of population) after t minutes
is the equation (model)

f (t) = 2t.

Determine the number of cells after one hour:

 Convert one hour to minutes. 1hr . 60mins = 60 min

 Substitute 60 for t in the equation. f (t) = 2t:

f (60) = 260 = 1.15×1018

Example 2: Determine how long it would take the population (number of cells) to reach
100,000 cells.

Solution and explanation:

 In this example, you know the number of cells at the beginning of the experiment
(1) and at the end of the experiment (100,000), but you do not know the time.
Substitute 100,000 for f(t) in the equation f (t) = 2t:

100, 000 = 2t

 Take the natural logarithm of both sides:

ln(100, 000) = ln(2t)

 Simplify the right side of the equation using the third rule of logarithms:

ln(100, 000) = t ln(2)

 Divide both sides by ln(2):

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 t= = 16.60964 min

It would take 16.6 minutes, rounded, for the population (number of cells) to reach 100,000.

1) If b^x=y will become log-b(y)=x (the logarithm of y to the base of b is equals to x) when
converted into logarithmic form, what is 4^x2=16?

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