If is a root of the polynomial with integer coefficients of the lowest degree, find the sum of the cubes of the roots of this polynomial.
Clarification : .
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If 1 + i is a root of this particular polynomial, then its negative must also be a root. That gives us an equation
f ( x ) = x 2 − ( 1 + i )
however, this still contains a complex part. Thus this needs another factor that will cancel this out. This gives us
f ( x ) = [ x 2 − ( 1 + i ) ] [ x 2 − ( 1 − i ) ]
f ( x ) = x 4 − 2 x 2 + 2
From here, we use Newton's sums to find the sum cubes of the roots.
P 1 = 0
P 2 = 0 − 2 ( − 2 ) = 4
P 3 = 0 ( P 2 ) − 2 P 1 + 3 ( 0 ) = 0