Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /222 of 520

Algebra Difficulty 2.9 Junior Find the answer

If (r+1r)2=3\left(r+\frac1r\right)^2=3, then r3+1r3r^3+\frac1{r^3} equals

Pick one

Solution

We know r+1r=3r+\frac1r=\sqrt3. Cubing this gives r3+3r+3r+1r3=33r^3+3r+\frac3r+\frac1{r^3}=3\sqrt3. But 3r+3r=3(r+1r)=333r+\frac3r=3\left(r+\frac1r\right)=3\sqrt3, so subtracting this from the first equation gives
r3+1r3=0 (C)r^3+\frac1{r^3}=\boxed{0\textbf{ (C)}}.
(Actually, r+1rr+\frac1r could have been equal to 3-\sqrt3 instead of 3\sqrt3, but this would have led to the same answer. Also, this answer implies that r6=1r^6=-1, which means that rr is a complex number.)

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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