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Saudi Arabian Mathematical Competitions, 2015

Algebra Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Saudi Arabia

How many polynomials PP of integer coefficients and degree at most 44 satisfy 0≤P(x)<720 \leq P(x) < 72 for all x∈{0,1,2,3,4}x \in \{0,1,2,3,4\}?

Solution

Remember that if P0(X),P1(X),P2(X),…P_{0}(X), P_{1}(X), P_{2}(X), \ldots are monic polynomials with integer coefficients such that deg⁡Pk(X)=k\deg P_{k}(X) = k for all k=0,1,2,…k = 0, 1, 2, \ldots, then any polynomial P(X)P(X) with integer coefficients can be written in a unique way as
P(X)=a0P0(X)+a1P1(X)+⋯+anPn(X), P(X) = a_{0} P_{0}(X) + a_{1} P_{1}(X) + \cdots + a_{n} P_{n}(X),
where a0,a1,…,ana_{0}, a_{1}, \ldots, a_{n} are integers and an≠0a_{n} \neq 0. This can be proved by induction on the degree of P(X)P(X) using the Euclidean algorithm.

Therefore, let us write our polynomial as:
P(x)=a0x(x−1)(x−2)(x−3)+a1x(x−1)(x−2)+a2x(x−1)+a3x+a4. P(x) = a_{0} x(x-1)(x-2)(x-3) + a_{1} x(x-1)(x-2) + a_{2} x(x-1) + a_{3} x + a_{4}.
Since 0≤a4=P(0)<720 \leq a_{4} = P(0) < 72, there are 7272 possible choices for a4a_{4}.

For any choice of a4a_{4}, we have −a4≤a3=P(1)−a4<72−a4-a_{4} \leq a_{3} = P(1) - a_{4} < 72 - a_{4}. Hence, we also have 7272 possible choices for a3a_{3}.

For each choice of a3a_{3} and a4a_{4} we have
−2a3+a42≤a2=P(2)−2a3−a42<722−2a3+a42. -\frac{2 a_{3} + a_{4}}{2} \leq a_{2} = \frac{P(2) - 2 a_{3} - a_{4}}{2} < \frac{72}{2} - \frac{2 a_{3} + a_{4}}{2}.
Hence, there are 3636 possible choices for a2a_{2}.

Keep doing that way, the total number of polynomials is
72×72×(72/2)×(72/6)×(72/24)=72×72×36×12×3=25922. 72 \times 72 \times (72 / 2) \times (72 / 6) \times (72 / 24) = 72 \times 72 \times 36 \times 12 \times 3 = 2592^{2}.

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