AlgebraDifficulty 5.0AIME, harderProve itUnited States
Problem: The coefficients of the polynomial P(x) are nonnegative integers, each less than 100. Given that P(10)=331633 and P(−10)=273373, compute P(1).
Solution
Solution: Let P(x)=a0+a1x+a2x2+… Then 21(P(10)+P(−10))=a0+100a2+… and 21(P(10)−P(−10))=10a1+1000a3+… Since all the coefficients are nonnegative integers, these expressions give us each of the coefficients by just taking two digits in succession. Thus we have a0=3, a1=13, a2=25, a3=29, a4=30 and an=0 for n>4. Thus P(1)=a0+a1+a2+⋯=100
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