Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 4.7 AIME Prove it United States

Problem:
Let P(x)P(x) be a quadratic polynomial with real coefficients. Suppose that P(1)=20P(1)=20, P(1)=22P(-1)=22, and P(P(0))=400P(P(0))=400. Compute the largest possible value of P(10)P(10).

Solution

Solution:
Let P(x)=ax2+bx+cP(x) = a x^{2} + b x + c. The given equations give us:
a+b+c=20ab+c=22 \begin{aligned} & a + b + c = 20 \\ & a - b + c = 22 \end{aligned}
Hence b=1b = -1, a+c=21a + c = 21, and so the final equation gives us ac2=400a c^{2} = 400. Substituting a=21ca = 21 - c and solving the cubic in cc, we get c=4,5,20c = -4, 5, 20. Of these, the smallest value c=4c = -4 (and hence P(x)=25x2x4P(x) = 25 x^{2} - x - 4) ends up giving the largest value of P(10)P(10).

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