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Exercise 7.2 · Q12

Q.If a,b,ca, b, c are all positive, and are pthp^{\text{th}}, qthq^{\text{th}} and rthr^{\text{th}} terms of a G.P., show that ∣log⁡ap1log⁡bq1log⁡cr1∣=0.\begin{vmatrix} \log a & p & 1 \\ \log b & q & 1 \\ \log c & r & 1 \end{vmatrix} = 0.

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Taking logarithms of the G.P. terms makes the first column a linear combination of the other two columns, so the determinant vanishes.

Let the G.P. have first term AA and common ratio RR, so a=ARp−1a = AR^{p-1}, b=ARq−1b = AR^{q-1}, c=ARr−1c = AR^{r-1} (all positive).

Step 1. Take logarithms:

log⁡a=log⁡A+(p−1)log⁡R,log⁡b=log⁡A+(q−1)log⁡R,log⁡c=log⁡A+(r−1)log⁡R.\log a = \log A + (p-1)\log R,\quad \log b = \log A + (q-1)\log R,\quad \log c = \log A + (r-1)\log R.

Step 2. With C2=(p,q,r)TC_2 = (p, q, r)^T and C3=(1,1,1)TC_3 = (1,1,1)^T, the first column is

C1=log⁡A C3+log⁡R (C2−C3)=log⁡R C2+(log⁡A−log⁡R) C3.C_1 = \log A\,C_3 + \log R\,(C_2 - C_3) = \log R\,C_2 + (\log A - \log R)\,C_3. …

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