Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /5 of 21

Algebra Difficulty 4.1 AIME Find the answer Italy

Problem:

What is the sum of the sixth powers of the solutions of the equation x616x4+16x21=0x^{6}-16 x^{4}+16 x^{2}-1=0?

Pick one

Solution

Solution:

The answer is (E)\mathbf{(E)}. We have x616x4+16x21=(x21)(x415x2+1)x^{6}-16 x^{4}+16 x^{2}-1=\left(x^{2}-1\right)\left(x^{4}-15 x^{2}+1\right) (all the roots are real), so if zz is a root different from ±1\pm 1, we have z4=15z21z^{4}=15 z^{2}-1, z6=15z4z2=224z215z^{6}=15 z^{4}-z^{2}=224 z^{2}-15. Denoting by z1,,z4z_{1}, \ldots, z_{4} these latter roots, we have:
j=14zj=0,1i<j4zizj=15 \sum_{j=1}^{4} z_{j}=0, \quad \sum_{1 \leq i<j \leq 4} z_{i} z_{j}=-15
i=14zi2=(j=14zj)221i<j4zizj=30,i=14zi6=224i=14zi260=6660, \begin{gathered} \sum_{i=1}^{4} z_{i}^{2}=\left(\sum_{j=1}^{4} z_{j}\right)^{2}-2 \sum_{1 \leq i<j \leq 4} z_{i} z_{j}=30, \\ \sum_{i=1}^{4} z_{i}^{6}=224 \sum_{i=1}^{4} z_{i}^{2}-60=6660, \end{gathered}
now reintroducing into the count the roots ±1\pm 1 we find that the correct answer is 6662. (D'Aurizio)

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from it; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.