To the power 99

Algebra Level 3

What is the coefficient of x 99 x^{99} in the expansion ( x 1 ) ( x 3 ) ( x 5 ) ( x 199 ) (x-1)(x-3)(x-5)\cdots(x-199) ?

-100000 10 10000 -10000 -1000 -100

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2 solutions

Chew-Seong Cheong
Jun 30, 2016

Using Vieta's formulas , we have:

n = 1 100 ( x ( 2 n 1 ) ) = x 100 x 99 k = 1 100 ( 2 k 1 ) + x 98 j , k = 1 , j k 100 ( 2 j 1 ) ( 2 k 1 ) + . . . + n = 1 100 ( 2 n 1 ) \begin{aligned} \prod_{n=1}^{100} (x-(2n-1)) & = x^{100} - x^{99} \sum_{k=1}^{100} (2k-1) + x^{98} \sum_{j,k=1, j \ne k}^{100} (2j-1)(2k-1) + ... + \prod_{n=1}^{100} (2n-1) \end{aligned}

The coefficient of x 99 x^{99} is 1 × -1\times sum of roots or k = 1 100 ( 2 k 1 ) = 100 2 ( 1 + 199 ) = 10000 \begin{aligned} - \sum_{k=1}^{100} (2k-1) & = - \frac{100}2 (1+199) = \boxed {-10000} \end{aligned}

Sam Bealing
Jun 30, 2016

There are 100 100 terms in the expansion so the x 99 x^{99} terms are formed by the x s x's from 99 99 brackets and the number from 1 1 bracket. This gives the answer as:

i = 1 100 ( 2 i 1 ) = ( 2 i = 1 100 i i = 1 100 1 ) = ( 2 × ( 100 ) ( 100 + 1 ) 2 100 ) = 10000 \sum_{i=1}^{100} -(2i-1)=- \left ( 2 \sum_{i=1}^{100} i - \sum_{i=1}^{100} 1 \right)=- \left ( 2 \times \dfrac{(100)(100+1)}{2}-100 \right)=\boxed{\boxed{-10000}}

Moderator note:

Good approach isolating the x 99 x^{99} term.

Typo: First line, x 99 x^{99}

Hung Woei Neoh - 4 years, 11 months ago

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Thanks, I've corrected it.

Sam Bealing - 4 years, 11 months ago

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