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Algebra Difficulty 6.6 National olympiad Prove it

4.1 If p,q1p, q_{1} and q2q_{2} are real numbers, and p=q1+q2+1p=q_{1}+q_{2}+1, then at least one of the two equations
x2+x+q1=0,x2+px+q2=0x^{2}+x+q_{1}=0, x^{2}+p x+q_{2}=0

has two distinct real roots.

Solution

[Proof] If x2+x+q1=0x^{2}+x+q_{1}=0 does not have two distinct real roots, then Δ1=14q10\Delta_{1}=1-4 q_{1} \leqslant 0, i.e., q114q_{1} \geqslant \frac{1}{4}.
In this case, the discriminant of the equation x2+px+q2=0x^{2}+p x+q_{2}=0 is
Δ2=p24q2=(q1+q2+1)24q2=q22+2(q1+1)q2+(q1+1)24q2=q22+2(q11)q2+(1+q1)2.\begin{aligned} \Delta_{2} & =p^{2}-4 q_{2}=\left(q_{1}+q_{2}+1\right)^{2}-4 q_{2} \\ & =q_{2}^{2}+2\left(q_{1}+1\right) q_{2}+\left(q_{1}+1\right)^{2}-4 q_{2} \\ & =q_{2}^{2}+2\left(q_{1}-1\right) q_{2}+\left(1+q_{1}\right)^{2} . \end{aligned}

The discriminant of the above quadratic trinomial in terms of q2q_{2} is
Δ3=4(q11)24(1+q1)2=4(4q1)=16q1.\begin{aligned} \Delta_{3} & =4\left(q_{1}-1\right)^{2}-4\left(1+q_{1}\right)^{2} \\ & =4\left(-4 q_{1}\right)=-16 q_{1} . \end{aligned}

Since q114q_{1} \geqslant \frac{1}{4}, it follows that Δ30\Delta_{3} \leq 0, i.e., the equation x2+px+q2=0x^{2}+p x+q_{2}=0 has two distinct real roots. Therefore, the proposition is proved.

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.