1971 AHSME Problems/Problem 20
Contents
[hide]Problem
The sum of the squares of the roots of the equation is . The absolute value of is equal to
Solution 1
We can rewrite the equation as By Vieta's Formulas, the sum of the roots is and the product of the roots is
Let the two roots be and Note that
Therefore, and This doesn't match any of the answer choices, so the answer is
-edited by coolmath34
Solution 2
The given equation can be rewritten as . By Vieta's Formulas, we know that the sum of the roots is . Thus, by Newton Sums, we have the following equation:
See Also
1971 AHSC (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | ||
Preceded by Problem 19 |
Followed by Problem 21 | |
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