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Algebra Difficulty 6.4 National Olympiad Prove it Mongolia

We say a polynomial of degree three with integer coefficients is good if it has three real roots and all its roots are irrational numbers between 00 and 11.
(i) Is there a good polynomial with leading coefficient equal to 1010?
(ii) Is there a good polynomial with leading coefficient equal to 1313?

Solution

Answer: (i) No, (ii) Yes.

a. (i)
Let aa, bb, cc and d>0d > 0 be integers and suppose that
F(x)=a+bx+cx2+dx3=d(xα)(xβ)(xγ) F(x) = a + bx + cx^2 + dx^3 = d(x - \alpha)(x - \beta)(x - \gamma)
is a good polynomial with 0<α,β,γ<10 < \alpha, \beta, \gamma < 1. Let Q(x)=x(1x)(2x1)Q(x) = x(1-x)(2x-1). Then it is easy to see that Q(x)163|Q(x)| \le \frac{1}{6\sqrt{3}} for any 0x10 \le x \le 1. Moreover,
d3Q(α)Q(β)Q(γ)=8F(0)F(1)F(1/2)0 d^3 Q(\alpha) Q(\beta) Q(\gamma) = 8F(0)F(1)F(1/2) \neq 0
is an integer. It follows that d63>10d \ge 6\sqrt{3} > 10, thus there is no good polynomial with leading coefficient 1010.

b. (ii)
Let aa, bb and cc be integers and let F(x)=13x3ax2+bxcF(x) = 13x^3 - ax^2 + bx - c. First, suppose that F(0)=1F(0) = -1 and F(1)=1F(1) = 1, then we have c=1c = 1 and a=11+ba = 11 + b. Now suppose that F(13)>0F(\frac{1}{3}) > 0 and F(23)<0F(\frac{2}{3}) < 0, then we have 476<b<556\frac{47}{6} < b < \frac{55}{6} and it is clear that F(x)F(x) is good.
Hence F(x)=13x319x2+8x1F(x) = 13x^3 - 19x^2 + 8x - 1 for b=8b = 8 and F(x)=13x320x2+9x1F(x) = 13x^3 - 20x^2 + 9x - 1 for b=9b = 9 are good polynomials.

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