My Favorite One-Liners: Part 80

Algebra II, Precalculus, Tales from the Classroom 1 Minute

In this series, I’m compiling some of the quips and one-liners that I’ll use with my students to hopefully make my lessons more memorable for them.

Today’s awful pun comes courtesy of Math With Bad Drawings. Suppose we need to solve for x in the following equation:

2^{2x+1} = 3^{x}.

Naturally, the first step is taking the logarithm of both sides. But with which base? There are two reasonable options for most handheld scientific calculators: base-10 and base-e. So I’ll tell the class my preference:

I’m organic; I only use natural logs.

 

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Published by John Quintanilla

I'm a Professor of Mathematics and a University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of North Texas. For eight years, I was co-director of Teach North Texas, UNT's program for preparing secondary teachers of mathematics and science.

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3 thoughts on “My Favorite One-Liners: Part 80”

  1. Pingback: Decimal Approximations of Logarithms (Part 5) | Mean Green Math
  2. Pingback: My Favorite One-Liners: Index | Mean Green Math
  3. Pingback: My Favorite One-Liners: Index – Mean Green Math

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