Do there exist four polynomials with real coefficients, such that the sum of any three of them always has a real root, but the sum of any two of them has no real root?
Solution
There do not exist four such polynomials. We show this as follows. Suppose that there do exist four such polynomials. If a polynomial has no real roots, it is either positive for all real , or else it is negative for all real . Consider the complete graph with the four polynomials as vertices.

Colour the edge white if for all real , and black if for all real . We cannot have a triangle of the same colour, because, if we did, the polynomial which is equal to a half of has a constant sign for all real , and therefore this sum of three polynomials would not have a real root.
By the Pigeonhole Principle, at least three of the six edges must have the same colour – let's say this colour is black. If three black edges have a common vertex, then in order to avoid forming a black triangle, the other three edges would need to be white, thus forming a white triangle – a contradiction.
So, without loss of generality, we can consider the case where and are black. Then and must be white and therefore we have for all real . But since and are black, we have for all real . The case where and are white yields a similar contradiction.
We conclude that there do not exist four such polynomials.
