Solve $2^x=x^2$ I've been asked to solve this and I've tried a few things but I have trouble eliminating $x$. I first tried taking the natural log:
$$x\ln \left( 2\right) =2\ln \left( x\right)$$
$$\dfrac {\ln \left( 2\right) }{2}=\dfrac {\ln \left( x\right) }{x}$$
I don't know what to do from here so I decided to try another method:
$$2^{x}=2^{\log _{2}\left( x^{2}\right) }$$
$$x=\log _{2}\left( x^{2}\right)$$
And then I get stuck here, I'm all out of ideas. My guess is I've overlooked something simple…
 A: There is a special function, $W_0(x)$ that is the inverse of $f(x)=xe^x$ when the latter is restricted to $x\in [-1,\infty)$. Using this, expressions of the form $Y=Xe^X$ can be solved as $X=W_0(Y)$. You want to find the solution(s) to the equation $2^x=x^2$. Rewrite $2^x$ as $e^{\ln(2)x}$ and raise each side to the power of $\frac{1}{2}$. We then arrive at $$x=e^{\frac{\ln(2)}{2}x}$$Multiple both sides by $\frac{-\ln(2)}{2}e^{\frac{-\ln(2)}{2}}x$ to arrive at $$\frac{-\ln(2)}{2} x e^{\frac{-\ln(2)}{2}x}=\frac{-\ln(2)}{2}$$Apply $W_0$ to both sides to get $$\frac{-\ln(2)}{2}x=W_0\left(\frac{-\ln(2)}{2}\right)$$ Multiply through to find $$x=\frac{-2}{\ln(2)} W_0\left(\frac{-\ln(2)}{2}\right)$$Which is equal to 2. 
A: Consider the function$$f(x):=(\ln 2)x-2\ln x$$ then $f^\prime (x)=\ln 2-2/x$. Then it easily follows that $f^\prime (x)>0$ when $x>4$ and $f^\prime (x)< 0$ when $x<2$. That is $f$ is increasing when $x>4$ and it is decreasing when $x<2$. Also $4$ and $2$ are zeros of $f$. Hence it follows that these are the only zero for $x>0$.
For, $x<0$ put $x=-y$ and consider the function $$g(y)=-(\ln 2)y-2\ln y$$ Then $g^\prime (y)=-\ln 2-2/y<0$ for all $y>0$ i.e. the function is strictly decreasing and hence it has exactly one root for $x<0$.
A: Resolution graphics:$$x^2=2^x<=>|x|=2^{\frac{x}{2}}$$
In the interval $ (-\infty,0) $ the equation has a solution because the member function is strictly decreasing and the left from the right hand is strictly increasing. In the interval $(0, \infty)$, the equation has two solutions $2$ and $4$, the function of the left hand side is linear function and the function of the right hand is convex.
A: Your equation has two obvious solutions which are $x=2$ and $x=4$. The last solution is not rational ($x \approx -0.766665$) and cannot be obtained using simple functions. You cannot get the last root using logarithms.
A: It is interesting to see that the two functions actually have three intersections. I would add that the non rational solution can be approximated by an iterative representation. Here I use $2^{-x} = x^2$, the solution to this equation is just negative of the solution to the original problem. The iteration would be:
$$
x_{n+1} = \frac{1}{2^{x_n/2}}
$$
Start with $x_0 = 1$ and five iterations give you $0.766$.
