Exponents!

Algebra Level 3

If x , y , z x,y,z are not equal to 0, and 2 x = 3 y = 6 z 2^x=3^y=6^{-z} , find 1 x + 1 y + 1 z \dfrac 1x + \dfrac 1y +\dfrac 1z .


The answer is 0.

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2 solutions

Chew-Seong Cheong
Oct 22, 2016

2 x = 3 y = 6 z x log 2 = y log 3 = z log 6 y = x log 2 log 3 z = x log 2 log 6 \begin{aligned} 2^x&=3^y=6^{-z} \\ x\log 2&=y\log 3 =-z\log 6 \\ \implies y&=\frac {x\log 2} {\log 3} \\ z&=-\frac {x \log 2}{\log 6} \end{aligned}

Therefore,

1 x + 1 y + 1 z = 1 x + log 3 x log 2 log 6 x log 2 = log 2 + log 3 log 6 x log 2 = log 6 log 6 x log 2 = 0 \begin{aligned} \frac 1x + \frac 1y + \frac 1 z & = \frac 1 x + \frac {\log 3}{x \log 2}-\frac {\log 6}{x\log 2} \\&= \frac {\log 2 + \log 3-\log 6}{x \log 2}\\ &= \frac {\log 6-\log 6}{x \log 2}\\&= \boxed {0}\end{aligned}

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