I'm trying to simplify an equation I have where one side is equal to, essentially, pe^(ax) + qe^(bx). and it really SEEMS like there should be a way to factorise this nicely but i think it might just be smoke and mirrors. What I would like is to be able to take the natural log of both sides and have it cancel the e - can someone tell me if it's a pipe dream?

Imagine you are running, and exactly 1 km to your side is another person running at the exact same speed. Both of you are heading toward the same point. Yet, relative to you, he is running the opposite way with a relative speed of 0 km/h.

This riddle was intentionally made to be confusing.