Minimal Polynomial Stuff

Geometry Level 5

Find the (monic) minimal polynomial of tan ( π / 15 ) \tan(\pi / 15) with rational coefficients. Submit the coefficient of x 4 x^4 .


The answer is 134.

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1 solution

Mark Hennings
Nov 17, 2017

If t = tan π 15 t = \tan\tfrac{\pi}{15} , then t 5 10 t 3 + 5 t 5 t 4 10 t 2 + 1 = tan ( 5 π 15 ) = tan 1 3 π = 1 3 \frac{t^5 - 10t^3 + 5t}{5t^4 - 10t^2 + 1} \; = \; \tan\big(5\tfrac{\pi}{15}\big) \; = \; \tan\tfrac13\pi \; = \; \tfrac{1}{\sqrt{3}} and hence 0 = 3 ( t 5 10 t 3 + 5 t ) 2 ( 5 t 4 10 t 2 + 1 ) 2 = ( 3 t 2 1 ) ( t 8 28 t 6 + 134 t 4 92 t 2 + 1 ) 0 \; = \; 3(t^5 - 10t^3 + 5t)^2 - (5t^4 - 10t^2 + 1)^2 \; = \; (3t^2 - 1)(t^8 - 28t^6 + 134t^4 - 92t^2 + 1) which means that the minimum polynomial of t t certainly divides X 8 28 X 6 + 134 X 4 92 X 2 + 1 X^8 - 28X^6 + 134X^4 - 92X^2 + 1 . It turns out that this last polynomial is in fact irreducible, and hence is the minimum polynomial of t t . Thus the answer is 134 \boxed{134} .

@Mark Hennings Sir, how do we know that the polynomial is irreducible??

Aaghaz Mahajan - 2 years, 3 months ago

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Apply Eisenstein’s Irreducibility Criterion to f ( X + 1 ) f(X+1) , using the prime 2 2 . This works because ( 8 j ) \binom{8}{j} is even for 1 j 7 1\le j\le 7 and 26 26 is not a multiple of 4 4

Mark Hennings - 2 years, 3 months ago

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