Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 4.4 AIME Prove it Philippines

Problem:
Let f(x)=lnxf(x) = \ln x. What are the values of xx in the domain of (fffff)(x)(f \circ f \circ f \circ f \circ f)(x)?

Solution

Solution:
We have (fffff)(x)=ln(ln(ln(ln(ln(x)))))(f \circ f \circ f \circ f \circ f)(x) = \ln (\ln (\ln (\ln (\ln (x))))).

The domain of this function must satisfy ln(ln(ln(ln(x))))>0\ln (\ln (\ln (\ln (x)))) > 0, which implies that ln(ln(ln(x)))>1\ln (\ln (\ln (x))) > 1, ln(ln(x))>e\ln (\ln (x)) > e, ln(x)>ee\ln (x) > e^{e}, and x>eeex > e^{e^{e}}.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.