Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

How many real triples (a,b,c)(a, b, c) are there such that the polynomial p(x)=x4+ax3+bx2+ax+cp(x)=x^{4}+a x^{3}+b x^{2}+a x+c has exactly three distinct roots, which are equal to tany,tan2y\tan y, \tan 2 y, and tan3y\tan 3 y for some real yy?

Solution

Solution:

Answer: 18

Let pp have roots r,r,s,tr, r, s, t. Using Vieta's on the coefficient of the cubic and linear terms, we see that 2r+s+t=r2s+r2t+2rst2 r + s + t = r^{2} s + r^{2} t + 2 r s t. Rearranging gives 2r(1st)=(r21)(s+t)2 r(1 - s t) = (r^{2} - 1)(s + t).

If r21=0r^{2} - 1 = 0, then since r0r \neq 0, we require that 1st=01 - s t = 0 for the equation to hold. Conversely, if 1st=01 - s t = 0, then since st=1s t = 1, s+t=0s + t = 0 cannot hold for real s,ts, t, we require that r21=0r^{2} - 1 = 0 for the equation to hold. So one valid case is where both these values are zero, so r2=st=1r^{2} = s t = 1.

If r=tanyr = \tan y (here we stipulate that 0y<π0 \leq y < \pi), then either y=π4y = \frac{\pi}{4} or y=3π4y = \frac{3 \pi}{4}. In either case, the value of tan2y\tan 2 y is undefined.

If r=tan2yr = \tan 2 y, then we have the possible values y=π8,3π8,5π8,7π8y = \frac{\pi}{8}, \frac{3 \pi}{8}, \frac{5 \pi}{8}, \frac{7 \pi}{8}. In each of these cases, we must check if tanytan3y=1\tan y \tan 3 y = 1. But this is true if y+3y=4yy + 3 y = 4 y is an odd integer multiple of π2\frac{\pi}{2}, which is the case for all such values.

If r=tan3yr = \tan 3 y, then we must have tanytan2y=1\tan y \tan 2 y = 1, so that 3y3 y is an odd integer multiple of π2\frac{\pi}{2}. But then tan3y\tan 3 y would be undefined, so none of these values can work.

Now, we may assume that r21r^{2} - 1 and 1st1 - s t are both nonzero. Dividing both sides by (r21)(1st)(r^{2} - 1)(1 - s t) and rearranging yields 0=2r1r2+s+t1st0 = \frac{2 r}{1 - r^{2}} + \frac{s + t}{1 - s t}, the tangent addition formula along with the tangent double angle formula. By setting rr to be one of tany\tan y, tan2y\tan 2 y, or tan3y\tan 3 y, we have one of the following:

(a) 0=tan2y+tan5y0 = \tan 2 y + \tan 5 y

(b) 0=tan4y+tan4y0 = \tan 4 y + \tan 4 y

(c) 0=tan6y+tan3y0 = \tan 6 y + \tan 3 y.

We will find the number of solutions yy in the interval [0,π)[0, \pi). Case 1 yields six multiples of π7\frac{\pi}{7}. Case 2 yields tan4y=0\tan 4 y = 0, which we can readily check has no solutions. Case 3 yields eight multiples of π9\frac{\pi}{9}. In total, we have 4+6+8=184 + 6 + 8 = 18 possible values of yy.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.