Hint: don't use multinomial

Algebra Level 5

Let ( 2 x 2 + 3 x + 4 ) 10 = r = 0 20 a r x r (2x^{2} + 3x +4)^{10} = \displaystyle \sum_{r = 0}^{20} a_{r}x^{r} , where a 0 , a 1 , , a 20 a_0, a_1, \ldots , a_{20} are constants.

Find the value of a 7 a 13 \dfrac{a_{7}}{a_{13}} .


The answer is 8.

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1 solution

Archit Tripathi
Jan 1, 2017

We have ( 2 x 2 + 3 x + 4 ) 10 = r = 0 20 a r x r (2x^{2} + 3x + 4)^{10} = \sum_{r=0}^{20} a_{r}x^{r} ...(1)

Replace x x by 2 x \frac{2}{x} , we get

( 8 x 2 + 6 x + 4 ) 10 = r = 0 20 a r ( 2 x ) r (\frac{8}{x^{2}} + \frac{6}{x} + 4)^{10} = \sum_{r=0}^{20} a_{r}(\frac{2}{x})^{r}

2 10 ( 2 x 2 + 3 x + 4 ) 10 = r = 0 20 a r . 2 r . x 20 r 2^{10}(2x^{2} + 3x + 4)^{10} = \sum_{r=0}^{20} a_{r}.2^{r}.x^{20-r}

Using equation (1)

2 10 r = 0 20 a r . x r = r = 0 20 a r . 2 r . x 20 r 2^{10}\sum_{r=0}^{20} a_{r}.x^{r} = \sum_{r=0}^{20} a_{r}.2^{r}.x^{20-r}

Comparing the coefficient of x 7 x^{7} in both sides

2 10 a 7 = 2 13 a 13 2^{10}a_{7} = 2^{13}a_{13}

a 7 = a 13 2 3 a_{7} = a_{13}2^{3} \Rightarrow a 7 a 13 = 8 \frac{a_{7}}{a_{13}} = \boxed{8} .

This is a well designed question, how about arbitrary quadratic? By the way, very clever, I have been amazed!

Kelvin Hong - 3 years, 4 months ago

great solution man!

Yash Gadhia - 3 years, 3 months ago

That's a nice solution. And for general quadratic a1x^2 +a2x+a3 we will replace x by a3/(a1 x)

Hitesh Yadav - 4 months, 3 weeks ago

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