If denotes a polynomial of degree such that for , determine .
Solution
Let , and clearly, has a degree of .
Then, for , .
Thus, are the roots of .
Since these are all of the roots of the degree polynomial, by the Factor Theorem , we can write as where is a constant.
Thus,
We plug in to cancel the and find :
\begin{align*} -(-1) &= c(-1)(-1-1)(-1-2) \cdots (-1-n) \\ 1 &= c(-1)^{n+1}(1)(2) \cdots (n+1) \\ c &= (-1)^{n+1}\dfrac{1}{(n+1)!} \\ \end{align*}
Finally, plugging in to find gives:
\begin{align*} Q(n+1)&=(n+2)P(n+1)-(n+1)\\ (-1)^{n+1}\dfrac{1}{(n+1)!}\cdot(n+1)! &=(n+2)P(n+1)-(n+1)\\ (-1)^{n+1}&=(n+2)P(n+1)-(n+1)\\ (-1)^{n+1}+(n+1)&=(n+2)P(n+1)\\ P(n+1) &= \dfrac{(-1)^{n+1} + (n+1)}{n+2}\\ \end{align*}
If is even, this simplifies to . If is odd, this simplifies to .
~Edits by BakedPotato66