Solving an exponential equation runs evaluation backwards: given the output, find the exponent that produced it. These free printable worksheets give a·bˣ = y and ask for x, the idea a logarithm formalizes later.
Kid stuck on one? You don’t just get the sheet.
The answer key prints on a separate page.
The method has two steps in order. Given 3 · 2ˣ = 48, first divide off the coefficient to get 2ˣ = 16, then ask which power of 2 lands on 16 — it is 2⁴, so x = 4. Dividing the coefficient away before matching the power is what keeps a child from trying to read an exponent off a number that still has the 3 attached. Where the combined exponential-functions sheet mixes this with plain evaluation, this page keeps every question pointed at finding the exponent.
Matching the power is solving by inspection: a child works up the powers of the base — 2, 4, 8, 16 — until one hits the target. That deliberate listing is the honest way in before logarithms, and every step-by-step walk here shows the powers being built until the match appears.
One question from this sheet, worked through a step at a time.
Solve f(x) = 4 · 6ˣ for x when f(x) = 864