Polynomials Sprint: Help Wanted

This post is used to collate any questions / uncertainties that you may have about Polynomials. Mentors will be looking in on this page, and providing explanations to help you understand. Do not be afraid to ask questions, as there will also be others with similar questions.

If you have a question, start a new comment and ask just that question (you can include related questions). State what you have done, and what you are having trouble with. Do not mix questions across different areas.

As an example,

I was working on question 5 and I got stuck. I can use rational root theorem to show that it has no rational roots. However, I do not know how to show that it has no real roots. Can someone guide me?

#Algebra #Polynomials #Sprint

Note by Calvin Lin
6 years, 11 months ago

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Comments

Please help with the second solution to E3(a).

I don't understand why we're taking n=3k,3k+1,3k+2n=3k, 3k+1, 3k+2, or why getting a zero after substituting x=ωx=\omega in x2n+xn+1x^{2n}+x^{n}+1 means divisibility by x2+x+1x^{2}+x+1. How would this process come to mind?

Siladitya Basu - 6 years, 11 months ago

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x2+x+1=(xω)(xω2)x^{2}+x+1 = (x - \omega)(x - \omega^{2}).

Mow let us take f(x)=x2n+xn+1f(x) = x^{2n}+x^{n}+1.

So if we have f(ω)=0f(\omega) = 0 and f(ω2)=0f(\omega^{2})=0 ,then we can write by the factor theorem (xω)(xω2)f(x)(x - \omega)(x - \omega^{2}) | f(x)

that is

x2+x+1f(x)x^{2}+x+1 | f(x)

Now the divisibility of f(x)f(x) is totally dependent on the value of nn modulo 3 and hence we have to consider 3 different cases as given by the book.

Eddie The Head - 6 years, 11 months ago

Okay, I understand why the substitution works, but I still don't get why taking those values of n work. Please help.

Siladitya Basu - 6 years, 11 months ago

Is there any alternative or easier way to solve 11 in the book other than the factorizing method given in the book? I must say that the questions are brain-wracking and thus this one made me give up factorizing :(. I must also include that few of the questions asked by Calvin to solve had an application of symmetric polynomial functions too, thus he shouldn't have included them! I would like to know methods to simplify eqautions like 11. I quite didnt know how to proceed to prove #4 and #5 though I'd got all of the rest right. I would like to get some exposure to some olympiad proofs as I'd actually learnt form the answers of these questions ( 4& 5)! Thanks :)

Krishna Ar - 6 years, 11 months ago

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The first thing you might notice is that the powers in the equation are all even. That suggests us to apply a substitution x=z2x=z^2 to simplify things. Calling the resulting expression P(x)P(x) we have: P(x)=x4+4x310x2+4x+1=0.P(x)=x^4+4x^3-10x^2+4x+1=0. Now to factorize this, we get help from the Rational Root Theorem, which suggests us to try ±1\pm 1. We see that P(1)=0P(1)=0, hence (x1)(x-1) is a factor of P(x)P(x) by the Remainder-Factor Theorem. Now rearrange terms and factorize: P(x)=x4x3+5x35x25x2+5xx+1P(x)=x^4-x^3+5x^3-5x^2-5x^2+5x-x+1 =x3(x1)+5x2(x1)5x(x1)1(x1)=x^3(x-1)+5x^2(x-1)-5x(x-1)-1(x-1) =(x1)(x3+5x25x1)=(x-1)(x^3+5x^2-5x-1) =(x1)Q(x)   [say]=(x-1)\cdot Q(x) ~~~[\text{say}] Note that Q(x)Q(x) is also monic and the constant term is 11. So it's easy to apply Rational Root Theorem again. Since Q(1)=0Q(1)=0, (x1)(x-1) is a factor of it. We again factorize: Q(x)=x3x2+6x26x+x1=x2(x1)+6x(x1)+1(x1)=(x1)(x2+6x+1)Q(x)=x^3-x^2+6x^2-6x+x-1=x^2(x-1)+6x(x-1)+1(x-1)=(x-1)(x^2+6x+1) Therefore: P(x)=(x1)Q(x)=(x1)(x1)(x2+6x+1)=(x1)2(x2+6x+1)=0P(x)=(x-1)\cdot Q(x)=(x-1)(x-1)(x^2+6x+1)=(x-1)^2(x^2+6x+1)=0 Now x=1    z=±x=±1x=1\implies z=\pm\sqrt{x}=\pm 1 is a root and bash the other factor with Quadratic formula.

Jubayer Nirjhor - 6 years, 11 months ago

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Ah! Thanks! :)

Krishna Ar - 6 years, 11 months ago

Huh, you can also do it by noticing that the coefficients are symmetric with respect to the middle term and so you can pull it apart into the sum of two squares which share a common factor.

Colin Tang - 6 years, 11 months ago

Sure!

First, let y=z2y=z^2 then we have ((y+1)2)2(4y)2=0((y+1)^2)^2-(4y)^2=0 factoring as a difference of squares we have (y2+6y+1)(y22y+1)=0(y^2+6y+1)(y^2-2y+1)=0 then we can find the roots of the two quadratic factors to be 3±22,1-3\pm 2\sqrt{2}, 1 so the solutions are z=±3±22,±1z=\pm\sqrt{-3\pm2\sqrt{2}}, \pm{1} Sorry if those aren't simplified.

Nathan Ramesh - 6 years, 11 months ago

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Hi! Are you talking about problem no.11? Not example, Problem!

Krishna Ar - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Krishna Ar

11 on page 255, yes.

Nathan Ramesh - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Nathan Ramesh :D. But sorry, I don't get it :( EDIT- Ok....let me try working with the method you use now :)

Krishna Ar - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Krishna Ar Which step don't you get?

Nathan Ramesh - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Nathan Ramesh Uhm...I actually didnt get that direct simplification..let me go through again, by this I mean- The expression you have written on the second line-

Krishna Ar - 6 years, 11 months ago

@Nathan Ramesh Whenever you write algebraic identities, you should clearly state them. For example, you should write

z8+4z610z4+4z2+1=y4+4y3+6y2+4y+116y2=(y+1)416y2 z^8 + 4z^6 - 10z^4 + 4z^2 + 1 = y^4 + 4y^3+ 6y^2 + 4 y + 1 - 16 y^2 = (y+1)^4 - 16y^2

It wasn't obvious how you arrived at the conclusion, and adding the intermediate steps would help.

Very nice observation!

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years, 11 months ago

Good question. That was one reason why I chose 11, because there is an 'easier' way to see the factorization.

5 is actually hard. I was surprised it was posted so early in the set.

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years, 11 months ago

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Yes. Indeed 5 is hard and I actually had to learn from its solutions :(. Could you tell me what would the follow-ups for this course be?

Krishna Ar - 6 years, 11 months ago

How does one think of a the method given in Example #6 (on page 250) himself? Is there any alternative method? Please help.

Samuel Jones - 6 years, 11 months ago

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Read Useful Lemma, which is the next installation in the series.

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years, 11 months ago

How many of the problems do you expect us to be able to do and in how much time per problem? I could do all of them except for #37, but problems like #5, #3, #4, #18 took a few days of thought.

Colin Tang - 6 years, 11 months ago

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You have a very good start. By the way, what troubles you in ques 37.??

Dinesh Chavan - 6 years, 11 months ago

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It's just that I am not very familiar with functional equations.

Colin Tang - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Colin Tang So there are a few basic ideas with functional equations:

Firstly, a function is not a polynomial! So you can't determine it's coefficient or anything of the sort. So we have a new toolkit:

  1. Guess the functions. Normally we guess for linear and constant functions. Guessing these functions provides us with a structure to solve the problem. Gut feel for functional equations is that only linear and constant functions will satisfy, but for some more complex ones, there might be higher powers.

  2. Substitute the variables with something else. Remember, you want to cancel stuff out, so if there are f f on both sides of the equation, say f(a)+blah=f(b) f(a) + \text{blah} = f(b) , then set try to manipulate the variables such that a=b a=b .

But this problem does not require any of the machinery listed above, it is a polynomial polynomial functional equation, meaning that we can still use our toolkit for polynomials. But step 1 1 comes in really handy.

Next, notice that x2+x+1 x^2 + x + 1 , the complicated thing in this question, looks extremely like roots of unity. Once we notice roots of unity, analysing the complex zeroes sort of transforms this problem from a polynomial functional equation one to one which manipulates complex numbers.

Then once we get some roots, (through playing around and trying to force out a contradiction at all steps if possible \Rightarrow this actually suggests extremal principle) then we pull out the roots that we already have, (in this case writing f(x)=(x2+1)mg(x) f(x) = (x^2+1)^m g(x) ) at this step what we basically do is to substitute everything back into the original equation to solve for g(x)g(x) and remembering our constraints at the same time.

Anqi Li - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Anqi Li Thanks

Colin Tang - 6 years, 11 months ago

@Anqi Li Can you add these comments to the Functional Equations Wiki pages?

Select "Write a summary", and then copy-paste your text into it (with minor edits). Thanks!

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years, 8 months ago

The time taken will greatly depend on your ability level, and familiarity with proofs. I intended for people to spend some time thinking about these problems, which is why this stretches across 2 weeks.

You should give yourself a pat on the back for solving these problems. They are not easy, and are above the level of what is normally covered in high school.

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years, 11 months ago

How to convert cubic's of the form x3+bx2+cx+dx^3+bx^2+cx+d into x3+px+qx^3+px+q in order to apply the solving method given in the book, The book says it can be done by translation, What does that mean?

Ishan Tarunesh - 6 years, 11 months ago

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Let the roots of the first cubic be α,β,\alpha, \beta, and γ\gamma. By Vieta's theorem, we can see that α+β+γ=b\alpha + \beta + \gamma = -b.

Translation means shifting functions. If we translate the function horizontally by kk, the roots become α+k,β+k\alpha + k, \beta + k and γ+k\gamma + k. Since the coefficient of x2x^2 in the second cubic is 00, the sum of its roots is also 00. Try to find a value of kk for which the sum of the new roots become 00.

Once that is done, and the new roots are obtained, by Vieta's again, we can get value of pp and qq in terms of b,cb, c and dd.

Pranshu Gaba - 6 years, 11 months ago

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If we shift xx by kk, it would change the coefficient of x3x^{3}, wouldn't it?

Samuraiwarm Tsunayoshi - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Samuraiwarm Tsunayoshi Shifting f(x)f(x) by kk horizontally means f(x±k)f(x \pm k), if kk is positive. If there is no restriction on kk, we can simply write it as f(xk)f(x - k).

In this case, x3+bx2+cx+dx^3 + bx^2 + cx + d would become (xk)3+b(xk)2+c(xk)+d(x - k)^3 + b(x - k)^2 + c(x-k) +d. Note that the term of x3x^3 appears only once, and its coefficient is still 11.

Pranshu Gaba - 6 years, 11 months ago

@Samuraiwarm Tsunayoshi Thanks, @Samuraiwarm Tsunayoshi even if the coefficient would have changed, we could have still divided by that coefficient to get a monic cubic

Ishan Tarunesh - 6 years, 11 months ago

Hi Ishan,

Yes...just as @Pranshu Gaba said you must first translate the polynomial by kk units.and then since we must eliminate the x2x^{2} part we must find the value of k for which the co-efficient of x2x^{2} is 0.But in this case since the polynomial is monic the co-efficient of x3x^{3} will remain unchanged inspite of the transformation...try it out to get the idea :)

Eddie The Head - 6 years, 11 months ago

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Hi Eddie,

I feel that even if a polynomial is not monic, translating it in any direction does not change the leading coefficient. This is because, essentially we are not changing the leading term when we translate the function. What do you think?

Pranshu Gaba - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Pranshu Gaba You are correct it holds for all...nothing special about monic .. :) ......Cheers!

Eddie The Head - 6 years, 11 months ago

What does #3 ask me to find?

Daniel Lim - 6 years, 11 months ago

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Remember to state what you are having trouble with. Which phrase do you not understand?

Let x1,x2x_1, x_2 be the 2 roots of x26x+1=0 x^2 - 6x + 1 = 0 .
Let An=x1n+x2n A_n = x_1 ^n + x_2 ^ n for ever non-negative integer nn.
1) Show that AnA_n is an integer.
2) Show that 5 5 does not divide AnA_n.

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years, 11 months ago

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Ok, thank you very much

I just don't know what is the problem asking for

Daniel Lim - 6 years, 11 months ago

I haven't encountered roots of unity before. I think the material in the book is too insufficient to understand for first-timers like me. Can somebody guide me to a good resource for roots of unity? Thanks.

Ananay Agarwal - 6 years, 11 months ago

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Roots of Unity is also a pretty good resource.

Anqi Li - 6 years, 11 months ago

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I read through the notes but I don't understand how to change something into exponential form, can anyone tell me how?

Daniel Lim - 6 years, 11 months ago

Be sure to check out the khan academy videos on the roots of unity!!!There Sal makes an excellent job to explain them for beginners...... Also check out this video by Patrick JMT Click here

Eddie The Head - 6 years, 11 months ago

Hi Ananay!

If you are comfortable with basic trigonometry and complex numbers, you should be able to graph them on the complex plane given a unit circle. Given this, you should look at the AoPSWiki - this link is probably the best short fundamental explanation of roots of unity I have seen on the internet. Also, here is a nice blog post on AoPS expanding on roots of unity.

Lastly, if you are looking for a more visual approach, read this. Hope that helps!

Ahaan Rungta - 6 years, 11 months ago

I'll admit they are a little confusing. If you're not one to memorize formulas, you can easily derive or find any root of unity by just drawing the unit circle and placing nn equidistant points along the circumference (for the nnth roots of unity). You can use basic trig from there. :D

Finn Hulse - 6 years, 11 months ago

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The issue is that some students who are trying to learn roots of unity without De Moivre's Theorem will have trouble doing this. I think @Ananay Agarwal is looking for something geometrical to get an intuition about it.

Ahaan Rungta - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Ahaan Rungta Yeah. That's what I was trying to say, is that you can easily construct the roots on a unit circle in the complex plane. I still have to do that sometimes. :D

Finn Hulse - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Finn Hulse Yes, okay, I see what you're saying. I was just pointing out that writing stuff in cis \text{cis} form is not the most obvious thing for some students. For me, it's very automatic at this point because I have practiced a lot, but I am sure that, the first time I saw roots of unity and cis \text{cis} form, I was a bit confused for at least one moment.

Ahaan Rungta - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Ahaan Rungta Same. I'm actually really terrible at trig and complex numbers, I have to rely fully on my intuition to solve them. Like converting rectangular to polar, I have to derive everything on the spot. I can't really memorize stuff like that. :P

Finn Hulse - 6 years, 11 months ago

When you say "try not to refer to solutions" on the https://brilliant.org/profile/calvin-8u8hog/sets/2-week-sprint-through-polynomials/, does that mean not referring to the solutions to the examples in the text (p. 245-250)?

Colin Tang - 6 years, 11 months ago

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You are referencing:

D. Work on the following problems in the book. Try not to refer to solutions. 3, 4, 5, 11, 13, 16, 17, 18.

I'm asking you to work on the problems listed on page 254-258. Solutions are given at the end of the chapter and you should not be referring to them.

With regards to

A. Read through pages 245 - 250 of Problem Solving Strategies. (Not the whole chapter)

You should be reading through the solutions to the examples.

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Calvin Lin Generally ,when solving Olympiad problems, after how many hours of trying should one look at the solutions?

Rishabh Raj - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Rishabh Raj Generally you shouldn't read the solutions until after solving it. The beauty of olympiad problems is that there is a lot to learn from solving them. If you cannot solve one after a few days put it away and come back to it. After solving other problems you will get ideas.

Nathan Ramesh - 6 years, 11 months ago

@Rishabh Raj I am not Calvin but I think I can still answer. It depends on the problem. If you are doing AIME #15 level problems and you have about 1 hour to kill in the test, spend at least 30 minutes on it doing stuff (not just sitting idle)! If you are doing USAMO, I'd say do stuff for at least 1-1.5 hours. Same for IMO.

Ahaan Rungta - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Ahaan Rungta Oh dude not to brag but I feel like the USAMO problems are really transparent. Like you can just look at it and know exactly what to do. AIME problems for me are more challenging because you have to actually problem solve.

Finn Hulse - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Finn Hulse Then why don't you make USAMO and win? They aren't transparent at all.

Nathan Ramesh - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Nathan Ramesh Well first I need to get through AIME. :D

Finn Hulse - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Finn Hulse No first u need 2 get through AMC 10 gg

David Lee - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@David Lee Yeah. Dude I don't think that will be a problem this year. I've been practicing. :D

Finn Hulse - 6 years, 11 months ago

@Rishabh Raj It greatly depends on the problem vs your ability level. A rough guide could be: Look at a solution only after you have given up for more than 30 minutes.

When you read solutions, don't simply see how it's done. An important aspect (which is often ignored), is to dissect and analyze them. Ask yourself:
1. Do I know enough to come up with this solution? If yes, why didn't I? If no, what do I need to know?
2. Is the solution motivated by some principle? What aspects of the question gave it away?
3. If I saw a similar (or even the exact same) problem in 6 months, can I solve it within an hour?

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years, 11 months ago

Extension on #3

Show why (2+1)n(\sqrt{2}+1)^n is very close to even integers for large integer nn.

Nathan Ramesh - 6 years, 11 months ago

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Does anyone wanna do this or should I explain a solution?

Nathan Ramesh - 6 years, 11 months ago

I guess it's something to do with this thing's binomial expansion and then cancelling all the surds to obtain a multiple of 2. I know that I am not fully right

Krishna Ar - 6 years, 11 months ago

After I'd looked through some of the problems, I still don't know how to start, can anyone here tell me what should I do?

Example #13:

Should I expand the equation?

Daniel Lim - 6 years, 11 months ago

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What do you expect to find after expanding the equation? What do you notice about the given equation that might let you make progress on the problem? After expanding, what is your plan?

Nathan Ramesh - 6 years, 11 months ago

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I came to this and I think I am near to the solution, so now what? Use the roots of unity? And what is the value of aa and bb?

x4(a2+b2)x+a2b2=0x^4-(a^2+b^2)x+a^2b^2=0

Edited:

x4(a2+b2)x2+a2b2=0x^4-(a^2+b^2)x^2+a^2b^2=0

Daniel Lim - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Daniel Lim Please check your work. Once you're sure you expanded correctly, try to apply things you know about roots of polynomials. (ahem, vietas)

Nathan Ramesh - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Nathan Ramesh Oh, the xx is supposed to be x2x^2, just a typo.

Is this ok?

x4(a2+b2)x2+a2b2=y2(a2+b2)y+a2b2x^4-(a^2+b^2)x^2+a^2b^2=y^2-(a^2+b^2)y+a^2b^2

By using Vieta's formula,

Sum of roots = a2+b2a^2+b^2

Product of roots = a2b2a^2b^2

So the roots are a2a^2 and b2b^2

Am I right?

Daniel Lim - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Daniel Lim I may have epically screwed up, but I have a very different expansion.

Nathan Ramesh - 6 years, 11 months ago

@Daniel Lim I am not too sure what you are doing here. The expansion doesn't seem right to me.

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Calvin Lin This is how I expand it

(xa)4(x-a)^4

=[(xa)2]2=[(x-a)^2]^2

=(x2a2)2=(x^2-a^2)^2

=x42a2x2+a4=x^4-2a^2x^2+a^4

Then I do the same to others

(xb)4=x42b2x2+b4(x-b)^4=x^4-2b^2x^2+b^4

(ab)4=a42a2b2+b4(a-b)^4=a^4-2a^2b^2+b^4

x42a2x2+a4+x42b2x2+b4=a42a2b2+b4x^4-2a^2x^2+a^4+x^4-2b^2x^2+b^4=a^4-2a^2b^2+b^4

2x42a2x22b2x2=2a2b22x^4-2a^2x^2-2b^2x^2=-2a^2b^2

x4(a2+b2)x2+a2b2=0x^4-(a^2+b^2)x^2+a^2b^2=0

Have I done anything wrong here?

Daniel Lim - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Daniel Lim A very common mistake.

(xa)2x2a2(x-a)^2\not=x^2-a^2

Nathan Ramesh - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Nathan Ramesh Oh, right, what a mistake. Wrote it as (xa)(x+a)(x-a)(x+a)

Thanks

Daniel Lim - 6 years, 11 months ago

We want to factorize the polynomial f(x)=(xa)4+(xb)4(ab)4 f(x) = (x-a)^4 + (x-b)^4 - (a-b)^4 .

Hint: What can we say about f(a)f(a) and f(b)f(b) ?

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years, 11 months ago

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By the remainder-factor Theorem,

aa and bb are the roots of f(x)f(x)

Daniel Lim - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Daniel Lim If f(a)=0f(a)=0 and f(b)=0f(b)=0

Daniel Lim - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Daniel Lim Great. And how would you continue, if you are interested in factorizing f(x)f(x) ?

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Calvin Lin (xa)(xb)g(x)(x-a)(x-b)g(x)

Daniel Lim - 6 years, 11 months ago

I'm curious to know how others solved #3.

Engel's solution involves taking modulo 5 and I'm not sure how that could come to mind. I used induction instead.

Siladitya Basu - 6 years, 11 months ago

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Hi Siladitya,

I think that one of the motivations behind using the modulo 5 was to eliminate the 6Sn16S_{n-1} part to get sn=sn1sn2s_n = s_{n-1}-s_{n-2} looks relatively better to infer a solution from.NOw if we can show that this sequence recurs after a value without arriving at 0 then we have already proved that for all n the sequence is not divisible by 5.

If you have solved it in a different way using induction than feel free to post your solution after the due date so that others can learn from it.

Eddie The Head - 6 years, 11 months ago

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Where did you learn your math from- Eddie?

Jayakumar Krishnan - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Jayakumar Krishnan I mainly learn from books and online courses -why?

Eddie The Head - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Eddie The Head I asked this because you know a lot and also post lot of nice problems. I wanted to know if you learnt it in school ( age) or were doing it now.

Jayakumar Krishnan - 6 years, 11 months ago

Thanks Eddie!

I believe seeing other people's solutions after solving, or failing to solve, a problem might be insightful. Also, we might understand shortcomings in our own solutions. However, there seems to be no designated place for discussing the solutions to (and not difficulties with) problems in Engel. Where and when do we post our solutions and discuss them?

Siladitya Basu - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Siladitya Basu Actually Calvin Sir instructed this sprint to be about 2 weeks long and hence if we post our solutions now many will not try the problems on their own.But one thing that you can\textbf{can} do right now is make a generalization of the idea that you used to solve the problem and post it in form of a note!!Also make sure that you post a link to the note in the What I learnt page.

If you need help with Latex then I can help.

Eddie The Head - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Eddie The Head What sort of generalization are you talking about?

I didn't play around with the problem after I solved it, so I really don't know in which way to generalize. Should I talk about a monic, integer-coefficient polynomial of n degrees; change the divisor from 5 to a broader set of numbers (primes??!); work with other forms that appear in Vieta's formulae((x1x2)n+(x2x3)n+(x3x1)n)((x_1x_2)^{n} + (x_2x_3)^{n} + (x_3x_1)^{n})? It'd be nice if there was some clarification!

Siladitya Basu - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Siladitya Basu Yeah I think that would be good

Eddie The Head - 6 years, 11 months ago

@Mursalin Habib @Sreejato Bhattacharya @Shaan Vaidya @anup navin @Sudeep Salgia @Anqi Li @Dinesh Chavan @Trevor B. @Eddie The Head @Sharky Kesa @Pranjal Prashant @Pranshu Gaba @Finn Hulse @Mardokay Mosazghi @Zong Zhang @Samuraiwarm Tsunayoshi @David Lee @Ahaan Rungta @Krishna Ar @Jubayer Nirjhor @Vagish Jha @Nathan Ramesh @José Marín Guzmán @Aayush Mani

Thanks for volunteering to be mentors. When the members have any questions about the material, they will post their question here. Please check in when you can, and help to clear out doubts. If this post become too long / unwieldly, I will come up with an alternative.

If any of you would like to post relevant notes and problems, you can state the links in a comment and I'd review them. (This includes posts made in the past)

Calvin Lin Staff - 6 years, 11 months ago

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You should make other posts like combinatorics, number theory, geometry, and another stuffs separately. To be honest, I'm completely suck at this kind of algebra and I haven't done this ever. I think I'll be just a student here. T__T

Hopefully, I'll come around and help at combinatorics and number theory. ^__^

Edit: I am completely confused what this topic is, so I just called it "this kind of algebra" . XD

Samuraiwarm Tsunayoshi - 6 years, 11 months ago

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First of all, it's pretty obvious that the polynomials sprint is just a starter, so there will be other projects. I like how Calvin is taking these subjects once at a time, making things very organized.

Second, this is not abstract algebra. Abstract algebra is a totally different field of math (pun intended)! This is basic polynomial algebra, and considering you are Level 5, there is no reason that you should not be able to help. This thread is for Levels 2-3 so you are free to spectate but you should probably let the level 2-3s be the students.

Third, even I have my weak subjects. For example, I am better in algebra and number theory than I am in combinatorics. So don't feel bad if you are slightly less active in some of these sprints. Good to have you on board! :)

Ahaan Rungta - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Ahaan Rungta I got lvl 5 algebra because of the completely different topics like algebraic identities, solving system of equations, little bit inequality, or stuffs like that. I can't even know what is the ii thing all about other than 1\sqrt{-1}. T__T

Samuraiwarm Tsunayoshi - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Samuraiwarm Tsunayoshi That's fine; then you can be a spectator!

Ahaan Rungta - 6 years, 11 months ago

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@Ahaan Rungta When a topic is deleted it actually should disappear, this long list makes my head hurt @Suyeon Khim @Silas Hundt @Peter Taylor @David Mattingly @Calvin Lin @Arron Kau and all other staff members

David Lee - 6 years, 11 months ago

Sure! I commit to helping anyone in these topics to the maximum possible.

Krishna Ar - 6 years, 11 months ago

Can someone please explain the example problem solution for this article - I'm having trouble following it.

Thanks

Soham Karwa - 6 years, 11 months ago

So Is this note still active? May I ask a doubt?

Swapnil Das - 5 years, 11 months ago
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