Let be a nonzero polynomial of degree with nonnegative coefficients such that function is odd. Is that possible thet for some pairwise distinct points on the graph the following conditions hold: tangent to at passes through , tangent to at passes through , , tangent to at passes through ?
Solution
1. Claim: The answer is no.
2. Reasoning: Since is an odd polynomial with nonnegative coefficients, it must be of the form:
where for all .
3. Derivative: The derivative of is:
4. Key Claim: Suppose and are consecutive points in the sequence. Then and must have different signs.
5. Proof: The tangent line at has the equation:
Substituting , we get:
Rearranging, we have:
Since is an odd function, we can write:
and similarly for . Thus:
6. Grouping Terms: Grouping the terms of degree together, we get:
Suppose and have the same sign. If , then the expression in the brackets is positive, and if , then the expression is negative.
7. Consistent Sign: Similarly, if we group the terms of degrees together, we obtain a consistent sign for all the expressions, which means that the equation:
has no solutions, leading to a contradiction.
8. Conclusion: Since is odd, this means that and have to lie on the same side of the -axis, which is a contradiction.