Can I simplify this before I apply the log property? It\'s taking a long time. Solution better take the log log (ab/c) = log a + log b - log c then differentiation becomes easy function = 3log(x+4) + log (2x-7) - (1/4)log (5x^2+ 1) differentiating (3/x+4) + (2/(2x-7)) - .25*10x/(5x^2+ 1) (3/x+4) + (2/(2x-7)) - 2.5x/(5x^2+ 1).