They Have Something In Common!

Algebra Level 5

f ( x ) f(x) is a monic quadratic polynomial such that f ( x ) f(x) and f ( f ( f ( x ) ) ) f(f(f(x))) share at least one common root.

What is i = 0 2014 f ( i ) \displaystyle \prod_{i=0}^{2014} f(i) ?


The answer is 0.

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3 solutions

Jubayer Nirjhor
Aug 23, 2014

Let f ( x ) = x 2 + a x + b f(x)=x^2+ax+b and let the common root be r r . So f ( r ) = 0 f(r)=0 and f ( f ( f ( r ) ) ) = 0 f(f(f(r)))=0 . This implies f ( f ( 0 ) ) = 0 f(f(0))=0 . But f ( 0 ) = b f(0)=b so f ( b ) = 0 f(b)=0 . So b b is the other root. Since the product of the two roots is b b , we have r b = b rb=b which implies b = 0 b=0 or r = 1 r=1 . These respectively implies f ( 0 ) = 0 f(0)=0 or f ( 1 ) = 0 f(1)=0 . Both leads to the whole product to be 0 \fbox{0} .

Nice solution

Sriram Vudayagiri - 6 years, 3 months ago
Pranjal Jain
Jan 23, 2015

f ( x ) = x 2 f(x)=x^2 was the first thing which came into my mind!

Yeah, intuitively I knew x x had to be a factor! (I read it as monic quartic at first XD)

Jake Lai - 6 years, 4 months ago

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x x doesn't have to be a factor.

The key thing here is to realize that either x x is a factor or x + 1 x+1 has to be a factor.

Mursalin Habib - 6 years, 3 months ago
Fox To-ong
Dec 16, 2014

it always implies that f(0) = a, then f(2014) = 0

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