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Extraneous solutions turn up in a few different p;aces in algebra. One reason they turn up in logarithmic equations is that you can only have a log of a positive number, but when you solve the equation, one of the answers is negative.

Did you ever do a word problem about a rectangle and have to solve a quadratic equation? You probably got 2 answers, and had to reject one of them because the length of a rectangle can't be negative. Same idea: the algebra doesn't understand what the problem is about, it just churns out answers!

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Q: Why can there be extraneous solutions in a logartithmic equation?
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