How many real triples are there such that the polynomial has exactly three distinct roots, which are equal to , and for some real ?
Solution
Let have roots . Using Vieta's on the coefficient of the cubic and linear terms, we see that . Rearranging gives . If , then since , we require that for the equation to hold. Conversely, if , then since cannot hold for real , we require that for the equation to hold. So one valid case is where both these values are zero, so . If (here we stipulate that ), then either or . In either case, the value of is undefined. If , then we have the possible values . In each of these cases, we must check if . But this is true if is a odd integer multiple of , which is the case for all such values. If , then we must have , so that is an odd integer multiple of . But then would be undefined, so none of these values can work. Now, we may assume that and are both nonzero. Dividing both sides by and rearranging yields , the tangent addition formula along with the tangent double angle formula. By setting to be one of , or , we have one of the following: (a) (b) (c) . We will find the number of solutions in the interval . Case 1 yields six multiples of . Case 2 yields , which we can readily check has no solutions. Case 3 yields eight multiples of . In total, we have possible values of .