Suppose that f ( x ) is a polynomial with integer coefficients, such that f ( n ) is a multiple of n , for all positive integers n . What is the constant term of f ( x ) ?
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Nice argument
Good
Yes, you are quite right.
Let f ( n ) = a i n i + a i − 1 n i − 1 + … + a 1 n + a 0 . Notice that all of the terms in this expression are multiples of n , except for a 0 , the constant term, which means that a 0 must be a multiple of n . Therefore, a 0 must be a multiple of all positive integers. The only number with this property is a 0 = 0 .
It's simple. If the function f ( n ) is divisible by all values of n , then all the terms of the function must contain n as a factor. But since the constant term always holds a constant value, the constant term, in this case, must be either n or 0 . Since it can be n because it's value is not fixed, it is sure to be 0 .
Let f(x)=a x 2 +bx+c.If f(x) is divisible by x,c must also be divisible by x.Thus c must be divisible by all positive values.0 is the only value which satisfies this.Thus 0 is the answer.
How do you know that f is a quadratic?
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quadratics are essentially polynomials
this is possible not only for quadratics but for all polynomials
One can just let f(x)=x... What a silly problem.
This is one of the problems in which I feel it is best to have members view it and work out the logic for themselves, despite having an easily guessed numerical answer. Just because the answering system is not ideal, doesn't mean that I shouldn't show such beautiful mathematical arguments.
That doesn't prove the constant term has to be 0.
Of course, but it does give a quick and dirty solution to an AIME-style problem
Agreed, pretty easy problem when you think about it...
f(n) has to be a multiple of n, not n
Constant term is f(0) which is a multiple of 0 and all multiples of zero are zero so f(0)=0
f(x) = (x + a)^e
If a > 0 then f(n) cannot be divided evenly into n parts.
For example if f(x) = (x + a)^3 = x^3 + 3a^2 x + 3ax^2 + a^3
then f(x) / x = x^2 + 3a^2 + 3ax + a^3/x
So if a > 0 then the a^e term will always be a^e/x
If a = 0 then f(x) = x^e which can be divided by an x term only
f(x) / x = x^e / x = x^(e - 1)
Where I stated the condition a > 0 is more accurately described as 0 < a < 0
f(x) = x^n + x^(n-1) + x + c
c = 0
so that
f(x) = x^n + x^(n-1) + x which is divisible by x itself
giving x^n ...+ c
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Since f ( x ) is a polynomial, it will have the form:
a i x i + a i − 1 x i − 1 + ⋯ + a 2 x 2 + a 1 x + a 0
Realize that any component of the form a i x i will be a multiple of the value of x . A multiple is the product of an integer and a quantity. So, whether we multiply x by itself through exponentiation or by a coefficient, we will always be able to divide the product by x .
Furthermore, the sum of multiples of x is also a multiple of x , since we are able to factor an x and divide it out. Therefore, the following segment of the polynomial is also a multiple of x :
a i x i + a i − 1 x i − 1 + ⋯ + a 2 x 2 + a 1 x
Now, the only thing that we need to look at is the constant in the polynomial. As we saw in the previous statement, the sum is a multiple of x if the addends are also a multiple of x . However, this would mean the constant would have to be different for each case of n . This violates the definition of a constant.
The only constant that would not have an effect on the multiplicity of the rest of the polynomial would be 0