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This is how I remember to do this.  Someone will probably have a hissy fit cause there's certainly nothing "proper" about it -- it's just something that works so I can remember it. 
 
If that were 1.015t = 4, without the exponent, you would divide both sides by 1.015 to solve for the t.  So the left would cancel out to just t.  And the right would be 4 divided by 1.015. 
 
However, it's not 1.015t, it's 1.015^t so you see that's not something you can really do.  What it does do is remind you to divide the 4 by 1.015, except you're going to divide the log of 4 by the log of 1.015.  I have to do this to remember which to divide by which.
     
     
    
    
    
    
    
    
  
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