f ( x ) and g ( x ) are monic quadratic polynomials that satisfy the following conditions:
What is the value of f ( 2 ) g ( 2 ) ?
Details and assumptions
A polynomial is monic if its leading coefficient is 1. For example, the polynomial x 3 + 3 x − 5 is monic but the polynomial − x 4 + 2 x 3 − 6 is not.
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That literally take me whole day to do this!
No calculus involved!
I'll call the word same f if f ( x 1 ) = x 1 and f ( x 2 ) = x 2 , and the word different f if f ( x 1 ) = x 2 and f ( x 2 ) = x 1 .
We'll prove that either same f different g , or different f same g satisfy the conditions.
We can construct
f ( x ) = x 2 − ( a 1 + a 2 ) + a 1 a 2 and
g ( x ) = x 2 − ( b 1 + b 2 ) + b 1 b 2 .
Substitute all the cases possible, and we'll see that
If same f , we get ( b 1 + b 2 ) − ( a 1 + a 2 ) = 1 . (1.1)
If different f , we get ( b 1 + b 2 ) − ( a 1 + a 2 ) = − 1 . (1.2)
If same g , we get ( a 1 + a 2 ) − ( b 1 + b 2 ) = 1 . (2.1)
If different g , we get ( a 1 + a 2 ) − ( b 1 + b 2 ) = − 1 . (2.2)
We see that only pair ((1.1),(2.2)) and ((1.2),(2.1)) works.
WLOG that f ( b 1 ) = b 1 , f ( b 2 ) = b 2 , g ( a 1 ) = a 2 , g ( a 2 ) = a 1 .
We know that f ( x ) = x has roots b 1 , b 2 and f ( x ) is monic, we get
f ( x ) = ( x − b 1 ) ( x − b 2 ) + x (3)
Also, g ( x ) = 0 has roots b 1 , b 2 , and g ( x ) is monic, we get
g ( x ) = ( x − b 1 ) ( x − b 2 ) . Substitute in (3) we get
f ( x ) = x + g ( x ) (#)
Plug in x = 1 we get
f ( 1 ) = g ( 1 ) + 1 . (4)
From condition 5 and (4), we get ( f ( 1 ) , g ( 1 ) ) = ( 1 2 , 1 1 ) (6.1) or ( − 1 1 , − 1 2 ) (6.2)
From (#), plug in x = a 1 we get
f ( a 1 ) = a 1 + g ( a 1 )
a 1 + a 2 = 0 .
Which makes f ( x ) = x 2 + a 1 a 2 .
Substitute from (6) we get a 1 a 2 = 1 1 (6.1) or a 1 a 2 = − 1 2 (6.2)
Obviously (6.1) is impossible because a 1 + a 2 = 0 .
Therefore, f ( x ) = x 2 − 1 2 .
Which makes g ( x ) = x 2 − x − 1 2 from (#).
Substitute and we get f ( 2 ) g ( 2 ) = ( − 8 ) ( − 1 0 ) = 8 0 ~~~
Oh my dog this is almost 1 AM right now, too lazy to sleep. Lazy bum.
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From the 3rd condition we have either f ( b 1 ) = b 1 , f ( b 2 ) = b 2 or f ( b 1 ) = b 2 , f ( b 2 ) = b 1 . We'll study each case individually :
1) f ( b 1 ) = b 1 and f ( b 2 ) = b 2
f ( b 1 ) = b 1 ⇔ f ( b 1 ) − b 1 = 0 , f ( b 2 ) = b 2 ⇔ f ( b 2 ) − b 2 = 0 .
Now let h ( x ) = f ( x ) − x then h ( b 1 ) = 0 and h ( b 2 ) = 0 , thus h ( x ) has the same roots as g ( x ) . It must follow by Vieta's Formulas that h ( x ) = g ( x ) for every real number x , or f ( x ) − x = g ( x ) ∀ x (Eq1) .
Taking the 4th condition into account we can only have g ( a 1 ) = a 2 and g ( a 2 ) = a 1 otherwise we'd arrive at g ( x ) − x = f ( x ) ∀ x (by the same argument as before) , which obviously contradicts f ( x ) − x = g ( x ) ∀ x .
Thus g ( a 1 ) = a 2 ⇔ g ( a 1 ) − a 2 = 0 and g ( a 2 ) = a 1 ⇔ g ( a 2 ) − a 1 = 0 .
Let h ′ ( x ) = g ( x ) − ( a 1 + a 2 − x ) , h ′ ( a 1 ) = 0 and h ′ ( a 2 ) = 0 ⇒ h ′ ( x ) = f ( x ) ⇒ g ( x ) − ( a 1 + a 2 − x ) = f ( x ) ∀ x (Eq2) .
From Eq1 and Eq2 we get (by substitution) that a 1 + a 2 = 0 . − ( a 1 + a 2 ) is the coefficient of x in the quadratic polynomial f ( x ) ( Vieta's Formulas ) , and since a 1 + a 2 = 0 ⇒ f ( x ) has the form x 2 − m , where m is nonnegative (the roots of f ( x ) must be real) . g ( x ) = x 2 − x − m (from Eq1 ) ⇒ f ( 1 ) = 1 − m and g ( 1 ) = − m ⇒ f ( 1 ) g ( 1 ) = m 2 − m .
Also f ( 1 ) g ( 1 ) = 1 3 2 ⇒ m 2 − m − 1 3 2 = 0 . The only nonnegative root is m = 1 2 , we see that this solution meets the conditions ⇒ f ( x ) = x 2 − 1 2 , g ( x ) = x 2 − x − 1 2 ⇒ f ( 2 ) g ( 2 ) = 8 0
2) f ( b 1 ) = b 2 and f ( b 2 ) = b 1
Using the previous strategy : f ( x ) − ( b 1 + b 2 − x ) = g ( x ) and g ( x ) − x = f ( x ) ⇒ same thing as before only f ( x ) and g ( x ) are switched , not surprisingly this doesn't affect their product at all.
⇒ f ( 2 ) g ( 2 ) = 8 0