The two pictures are examples of third and fourth degree polynomials 'just fitting' inside a square of side length 2 and centered about the origin. These surprisingly have integer coefficients.
What can be said about polynomials of a higher degree?
Here are degrees 2-5:
(By trial and error)
It is easy to show that the coefficients must sum to 1 and it appears the leading coefficient increases by powers of 2
Easy Math Editor
This discussion board is a place to discuss our Daily Challenges and the math and science related to those challenges. Explanations are more than just a solution — they should explain the steps and thinking strategies that you used to obtain the solution. Comments should further the discussion of math and science.
When posting on Brilliant:
*italics*
or_italics_
**bold**
or__bold__
paragraph 1
paragraph 2
[example link](https://brilliant.org)
> This is a quote
\(
...\)
or\[
...\]
to ensure proper formatting.2 \times 3
2^{34}
a_{i-1}
\frac{2}{3}
\sqrt{2}
\sum_{i=1}^3
\sin \theta
\boxed{123}
Comments
See Chebyshev Polynomials.
Log in to reply
Interesting that there is this connection, why is this so?
Log in to reply
I guess it's just a corollary of Chebyshev polynomials. I can't verbally explain this.