Question

How do you solve `e^x=5`?

Answer 1

I found: `x=ln5`

Explanation:

You can apply the natural (base `e`) logarithm on both sides:
`ln(e^x)=ln5`
On the left the two operations will cancel out (one the inverse of the other) so you'll get:
`x=ln5`
If you can access a calculator (or tables) you can evaluate it as:
`x=ln5=1.6094`

Answer 2

`x=ln5` or `~~1.609`

Explanation:

We want to cancel out base `e`. We can do this by taking the natural log of both sides.

`lne^x=ln5`

Since `ln` and `e` are inverses of each other, they cancel, and we're left with

`x=ln5`

As a decimal, this is approximately `1.609`.

Hope this helps!