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Algebra Difficulty 4.8 AIME Find the answer

For how many positive integers aa does the polynomial x2ax+ax^{2}-a x+a have an integer root?

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

Solution

Let r,sr, s be the roots of x2ax+a=0x^{2}-a x+a=0. By Vieta's, we have r+s=rs=ar+s=r s=a. Note that if one root is an integer, then both roots must be integers, as they sum to an integer aa. Then, rs(r+s)+1=1(r1)(s1)=1r s-(r+s)+1=1 \Longrightarrow(r-1)(s-1)=1 Because we require r,sr, s to be both integers, we have r1=s1=±1r-1=s-1= \pm 1, which yields r=s=0,2r=s=0,2. If r=0r=0 or s=0s=0, then a=0a=0, but we want aa to be a positive integer. Therefore, our only possibility is when r=s=2r=s=2, which yields a=4a=4, so there is exactly 1 value of aa (namely, a=4a=4 ) such that x2axax^{2}-a x-a has an integer root.

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