Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /411 of 860

Algebra Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Find the answer

Let P(x)P(x) be the monic polynomial with rational coefficients of minimal degree such that 12\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}, 13,14,,11000\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}, \frac{1}{\sqrt{4}}, \ldots, \frac{1}{\sqrt{1000}} are roots of PP. What is the sum of the coefficients of PP?

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

Solution

For irrational 1r,1r\frac{1}{\sqrt{r}},-\frac{1}{\sqrt{r}} must also be a root of PP. Therefore P(x)=(x212)(x213)(x211000)(x+12)(x+13)(x+131)P(x)=\frac{\left(x^{2}-\frac{1}{2}\right)\left(x^{2}-\frac{1}{3}\right) \cdots\left(x^{2}-\frac{1}{1000}\right)}{\left(x+\frac{1}{2}\right)\left(x+\frac{1}{3}\right) \cdots\left(x+\frac{1}{31}\right)}. We get the sum of the coefficients of PP by setting x=1x=1, so we use telescoping to get P(1)=1223999100032433231=116000P(1)=\frac{\frac{1}{2} \cdot \frac{2}{3} \cdots \frac{999}{1000}}{\frac{3}{2} \cdot \frac{4}{3} \cdots \frac{32}{31}}=\frac{1}{16000}.

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