Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

Suppose P(x)P(x) is a cubic polynomial with integer coefficients such that P(5)=5P(\sqrt{5})=5 and P(53)=553P(\sqrt[3]{5})=5 \sqrt[3]{5}. Compute P(5)P(5).

Solution

Solution:

Write P(x)=ax3+bx2+cx+dP(x)=a x^{3}+b x^{2}+c x+d, where a,b,c,da, b, c, d are integers. Then we have that
P(5)5=(5a+c)5+(5b+d5)=0P(53)553=(5a+d)+(c5)53+b253=0 \begin{aligned} P(\sqrt{5})-5 & =(5 a+c) \sqrt{5}+(5 b+d-5)=0 \\ P(\sqrt[3]{5})-5 \sqrt[3]{5} & =(5 a+d)+(c-5) \sqrt[3]{5}+b \sqrt[3]{25}=0 \end{aligned}
Recall that 5\sqrt{5} is irrational. In particular, since (5a+c)5+(5b+d5)=0(5 a+c) \sqrt{5}+(5 b+d-5)=0, we must have 5a+c=05 a+c=0 and 5b+d5=05 b+d-5=0. Similarly, from the condition on 53\sqrt[3]{5}, we must have 5a+d=c5=b=05 a+d=c-5=b=0.
This is enough to imply (a,b,c,d)=(1,0,5,5)(a, b, c, d)=(-1,0,5,5), so P(x)=x3+5x+5P(x)=-x^{3}+5 x+5. Hence, our final answer is P(5)=125+25+5=95P(5)=-125+25+5=-95.

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