True or False:
The equation has no rational solutions.
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Here's my solution: let u = 2 x , v = 3 x so that the original equation becomes the quadratic:
( 2 x ) 2 + 2 x 3 x − ( 3 x ) 2 = 0 ⇒ u 2 + u v − v 2 = 0
which solving for u becomes u = 2 − v ± v 2 − 4 ( 1 ) ( − v 2 ) = ( 2 − 1 ± 5 ) v . Since u , v > 0 we will only admit the positive root, or:
u = ( 2 − 1 + 5 ) v ⇒ ( 3 2 ) x = 2 − 1 + 5 ⇒ x = l n ( 2 ) − l n ( 3 ) l n ( 5 − 1 ) − l n ( 2 ) = − 1 − l n ( 2 ) − l n ( 3 ) l n ( 3 ) + l n ( 5 − 1 ) .
Hence, there are no solutions for x ∈ Q .