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Algebra Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Find the answer

Let f(x)f(x) be a quotient of two quadratic polynomials. Given that f(n)=n3f(n)=n^{3} for all n{1,2,3,4,5}n \in\{1,2,3,4,5\}, compute f(0)f(0).

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

Let f(x)=p(x)/q(x)f(x)=p(x) / q(x). Then, x3q(x)p(x)x^{3} q(x)-p(x) has 1,2,3,4,51,2,3,4,5 as roots. Therefore, WLOG, let x3q(x)p(x)=(x1)(x2)(x3)(x4)(x5)=x515x4+85x3x^{3} q(x)-p(x)=(x-1)(x-2)(x-3)(x-4)(x-5)=x^{5}-15 x^{4}+85 x^{3}-\ldots Thus, q(x)=x215x+85q(x)=x^{2}-15 x+85, so q(0)=85q(0)=85. Plugging x=0x=0 in the above equation also gives p(0)=120-p(0)=-120. Hence, the answer is 12085=2417\frac{120}{85}=\frac{24}{17}. Remark. From the solution above, it is not hard to see that the unique ff that satisfies the problem is f(x)=225x2274x+120x215x+85f(x)=\frac{225 x^{2}-274 x+120}{x^{2}-15 x+85}

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