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Algebra Difficulty 3.7 AMC 10/12 Find the answer Italy

Problem:

Knowing that the polynomial pp is such that, for every integer nn, p(5n1)=55n1p\left(5^{n}-1\right)=5^{5 n}-1, what will p(3)p(3) be equal to?

Pick one

Solution

Solution:

The answer is (A). Let us consider the polynomial q(x)=(x+1)51q(x) = (x+1)^5 - 1. For every integer nn we have
q(5n1)=(5n1+1)51=55n1=p(5n1) q\left(5^{n}-1\right) = \left(5^{n}-1+1\right)^5 - 1 = 5^{5 n} - 1 = p\left(5^{n}-1\right)
so the difference polynomial p(x)q(x)p(x)-q(x) vanishes for infinitely many values of xx (all those of the form 5n15^{n}-1 with nn an integer). It follows that the difference p(x)q(x)p(x)-q(x) is identically zero, that is p(x)=q(x)p(x)=q(x), so that
p(3)=q(3)=451=1023. p(3) = q(3) = 4^5 - 1 = 1023.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from it; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.