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Algebra Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Find the answer

How many real triples (a,b,c)(a, b, c) are there such that the polynomial p(x)=x4+ax3+bx2+ax+cp(x)=x^{4}+a x^{3}+b x^{2}+a x+c has exactly three distinct roots, which are equal to tany,tan2y\tan y, \tan 2 y, and tan3y\tan 3 y for some real yy ?

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

Let pp have roots r,r,s,tr, r, s, t. Using Vieta's on the coefficient of the cubic and linear terms, we see that 2r+s+t=r2s+r2t+2rst2 r+s+t=r^{2} s+r^{2} t+2 r s t. Rearranging gives 2r(1st)=(r21)(s+t)2 r(1-s t)=\left(r^{2}-1\right)(s+t). If r21=0r^{2}-1=0, then since r0r \neq 0, we require that 1st=01-s t=0 for the equation to hold. Conversely, if 1st=01-s t=0, then since st=1,s+t=0s t=1, s+t=0 cannot hold for real s,ts, t, we require that r21=0r^{2}-1=0 for the equation to hold. So one valid case is where both these values are zero, so r2=st=1r^{2}=s t=1. If r=tanyr=\tan y (here we stipulate that 0y<π0 \leq y<\pi ), then either y=π4y=\frac{\pi}{4} or y=3π4y=\frac{3 \pi}{4}. In either case, the value of tan2y\tan 2 y is undefined. If r=tan2yr=\tan 2 y, then we have the possible values y=π8,3π8,5π8,7π8y=\frac{\pi}{8}, \frac{3 \pi}{8}, \frac{5 \pi}{8}, \frac{7 \pi}{8}. In each of these cases, we must check if tanytan3y=1\tan y \tan 3 y=1. But this is true if y+3y=4yy+3 y=4 y is a odd integer multiple of π2\frac{\pi}{2}, which is the case for all such values. If r=tan3yr=\tan 3 y, then we must have tanytan2y=1\tan y \tan 2 y=1, so that 3y3 y is an odd integer multiple of π2\frac{\pi}{2}. But then tan3y\tan 3 y would be undefined, so none of these values can work. Now, we may assume that r21r^{2}-1 and 1st1-s t are both nonzero. Dividing both sides by (r21)(1st)\left(r^{2}-1\right)(1-s t) and rearranging yields 0=2r1r2+s+t1st0=\frac{2 r}{1-r^{2}}+\frac{s+t}{1-s t}, the tangent addition formula along with the tangent double angle formula. By setting rr to be one of tany,tan2y\tan y, \tan 2 y, or tan3y\tan 3 y, we have one of the following: (a) 0=tan2y+tan5y0=\tan 2 y+\tan 5 y (b) 0=tan4y+tan4y0=\tan 4 y+\tan 4 y (c) 0=tan6y+tan3y0=\tan 6 y+\tan 3 y. We will find the number of solutions yy in the interval [0,π)[0, \pi). Case 1 yields six multiples of π7\frac{\pi}{7}. Case 2 yields tan4y=0\tan 4 y=0, which we can readily check has no solutions. Case 3 yields eight multiples of π9\frac{\pi}{9}. In total, we have 4+6+8=184+6+8=18 possible values of yy.

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