Use logarithms to solve log 8 / log x < 1.

I understand that there are 2 cases: when x is negative or positive.

I don't understand how it affects the answer though.

log8<logx if logx is positive

10^8<x

Log8>logx if logx is negative.
10^8>x if x is less one

When dealing with logarithmic inequalities, it is important to consider the restrictions on the domain of the logarithmic function. In this case, we have the inequality:

log 8 / log x < 1

To solve this inequality, we need to consider two cases: when x is positive and when x is negative.

Case 1: x is positive
In this case, we can assume that both the numerator log 8 and the denominator log x are positive because logarithms of positive numbers are always positive. Therefore, we can rewrite the inequality as:

log 8 < log x

Since logarithmic functions are increasing, this means that the base 10 logarithm of 8 is less than the base 10 logarithm of x. By applying the inverse function, we have:

8 < x

So, for x values greater than 8, the inequality holds in this positive case.

Case 2: x is negative
When x is negative, the logarithm of x is undefined because we can only take the logarithm of positive numbers. Therefore, in this case, the inequality is not valid.

To summarize, the solution to the inequality log 8 / log x < 1 is x > 8 for positive x values. The inequality is not valid for negative x values because the logarithm of a negative number is undefined.