Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2024

Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

Let ff and gg be two quadratic polynomials with real coefficients such that the equation f(g(x))=0f(g(x))=0 has four distinct real solutions: 112,131,146112, 131, 146, and aa. Compute the sum of all possible values of aa.

Solution

Solution:

Claim 1. If a,b,c,da, b, c, d are roots of f(g(x))f(g(x)), then one can permute them so that a+b=c+da+b=c+d.

Proof. Let vv be the point for which g(v)g(v) is the local minimum or maximum. Note that if g(x)=g(y)g(x)=g(y), then xx and yy are symmetric around vv, or x+y=2vx+y=2v. Moreover, if a,b,c,da, b, c, d are roots of f(g(x))f(g(x)), then we can permute them so that g(a)g(a) and g(b)g(b) are equal to one root of ff and g(c)g(c) and g(d)g(d) are equal to another root of ff. This means that a+b=c+d=2va+b=c+d=2v.

In the case of our problem, if three roots are r,sr, s, and tt, then the fourth can be r+str+s-t, r+tsr+t-s, or s+trs+t-r, with sum r+s+tr+s+t. Using the given values, we get that the answer is 112+131+146=389112+131+146=389. Observe that these are all possible; indeed, if we let g(x)=x2(r+s)xg(x)=x^{2}-(r+s)x, then g(r)=g(s)g(r)=g(s) and g(t)=g(r+st)g(t)=g(r+s-t). Now let f(x)=(xg(r))(xg(t))f(x)=(x-g(r))(x-g(t)); then f(g(x))f(g(x)) has roots r,s,tr, s, t, and r+str+s-t. The other two values are similarly achievable.

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