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Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad

Algebra Difficulty 4.9 AIME Prove it Brazil

The remainder on dividing the polynomial p(x)p(x) by x2−(a+b)x+abx^2 - (a+b)x + ab (where aa and bb are unequal) is mx+nmx + n. Find the coefficients m,nm, n in terms of a,ba, b. Find m,nm, n for the case p(x)=x200p(x) = x^{200} divided by x2−x−2x^2 - x - 2 and show that they are integers.

Solution

Let p(x)=q(x)(x−a)(x−b)+mx+np(x) = q(x)(x-a)(x-b) + mx + n. So putting x=a,bx = a, b we get p(a)=ma+np(a) = ma + n, p(b)=mb+np(b) = mb + n. Solving, m=p(a)−p(b)a−bm = \frac{p(a)-p(b)}{a-b}, n=p(b)a−p(a)ba−bn = \frac{p(b)a-p(a)b}{a-b}.

In the case given a=2a = 2, b=−1b = -1, so m=2200−13m = \frac{2^{200}-1}{3}, n=2200+23n = \frac{2^{200}+2}{3}. Note that 2≡−1(mod3)2 \equiv -1 \pmod{3}, so 2200≡1(mod3)2^{200} \equiv 1 \pmod{3} and hence 2200−12^{200} - 1 is a multiple of 33, so mm is an integer. n=m+1n = m + 1, so nn is also an integer.

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