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Algebra Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Find the answer

The complex numbers α1,α2,α3, \alpha_{1}, \alpha_{2}, \alpha_{3}, and α4 \alpha_{4} are the four distinct roots of the equation x4+2x3+2=0 x^{4}+2 x^{3}+2=0 . Determine the unordered set {α1α2+α3α4,α1α3+α2α4,α1α4+α2α3} \left\{\alpha_{1} \alpha_{2}+\alpha_{3} \alpha_{4}, \alpha_{1} \alpha_{3}+\alpha_{2} \alpha_{4}, \alpha_{1} \alpha_{4}+\alpha_{2} \alpha_{3}\right\} .

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Solution

Employing the elementary symmetric polynomials (s1=α1+α2+α3+α4=2,s2=α1α2+α1α3+α1α4+α2α3+α2α4+α3α4=0,s3=α1α2α3+α2α3α4+α3α4α1+α4α1α2=0 \left(s_{1}=\alpha_{1}+\alpha_{2}+\alpha_{3}+\alpha_{4}=\right. -2, s_{2}=\alpha_{1} \alpha_{2}+\alpha_{1} \alpha_{3}+\alpha_{1} \alpha_{4}+\alpha_{2} \alpha_{3}+\alpha_{2} \alpha_{4}+\alpha_{3} \alpha_{4}=0, s_{3}=\alpha_{1} \alpha_{2} \alpha_{3}+\alpha_{2} \alpha_{3} \alpha_{4}+\alpha_{3} \alpha_{4} \alpha_{1}+\alpha_{4} \alpha_{1} \alpha_{2}=0 and s4=α1α2α3α4=2 s_{4}=\alpha_{1} \alpha_{2} \alpha_{3} \alpha_{4}=2 we consider the polynomial P(x)=(x(α1α2+α3α4))(x(α1α3+α2α4))(x(α1α4+α2α3)) P(x)=\left(x-\left(\alpha_{1} \alpha_{2}+\alpha_{3} \alpha_{4}\right)\right)\left(x-\left(\alpha_{1} \alpha_{3}+\alpha_{2} \alpha_{4}\right)\right)\left(x-\left(\alpha_{1} \alpha_{4}+\alpha_{2} \alpha_{3}\right)\right) . Because P P is symmetric with respect to α1,α2,α3,α4 \alpha_{1}, \alpha_{2}, \alpha_{3}, \alpha_{4} , we can express the coefficients of its expanded form in terms of the elementary symmetric polynomials. We compute P(x)=x3s2x2+(s3s14s4)x+(s32s4s12+s4s2)=x38x8=(x+2)(x22x4) P(x) =x^{3}-s_{2} x^{2}+\left(s_{3} s_{1}-4 s_{4}\right) x+\left(-s_{3}^{2}-s_{4} s_{1}^{2}+s_{4} s_{2}\right) =x^{3}-8 x-8 =(x+2)\left(x^{2}-2 x-4\right) . The roots of P(x) P(x) are -2 and 1±5 1 \pm \sqrt{5} , so the answer is \{1 \pm \sqrt{5},-2\}.

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