If lny + lnx = lnc, how do you find an expression for y?

1 Answer
Jul 10, 2016

We can manipulate the equation to get cx=y.
An expression for y is therefore cx.

Explanation:

lny+lnx=lnc
We want to isolate y, so we move all terms not containing y to one side.
We can do this by subtracting lnx from both sides.

lny+lnx=lnc
lny+lnxlnx=lnclnx
lny=lnclnx

Then, we use the following law of logarithms:

lnalnb=ln(ab) for any a and b.

So, we have:
lny=lnclnx

lny=ln(cx)

I'll show two ways to to solve for y from this step:

Solution 1:

Remember that:
a=lnb means that ea=b.

So, we can use this to get:

lny=ln(cx)
eln(cx)=y.

(in this case, our a is ln(cx) and our b is y).

Then, we can simplify eln(cx)=y using the following rule:
eln(a)=a for any a.

So we have:
eln(cx)=y
cx=y.

Solution 2:
Another way to solve for y using lny=ln(cx) is as follows:

Just like how you can add and subtract to both sides of an equation, you can also use both sides as exponents.

lny=ln(cx)
elny=eln(cx)

Then we can use the following rule:
eln(a)=a for any a.

elny=eln(cx)
y=cx.