Difference between revisions of "2010 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 25"
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You get that from the <math>8\times8</math> matrix <math>M_{i,j} = i^{j-1}</math> and <math>y^T=(315,-315,\ldots,315,-315)</math> and computing <math>c=M^{-1}y</math> which comes out as the all-integer coefficients above. | You get that from the <math>8\times8</math> matrix <math>M_{i,j} = i^{j-1}</math> and <math>y^T=(315,-315,\ldots,315,-315)</math> and computing <math>c=M^{-1}y</math> which comes out as the all-integer coefficients above. | ||
+ | |||
+ | == Critique of the Critique == | ||
+ | |||
+ | Once you find that <math>a</math> is a factor of 315, you can instantly find that the answer is 315 because the problem asks for the smallest value of <math>a</math>. | ||
== See also == | == See also == |
Revision as of 16:54, 30 December 2015
Problem
Let , and let
be a polynomial with integer coefficients such that
, and
.
What is the smallest possible value of ?
Solution
We observe that because , if we define a new polynomial
such that
,
has roots when
; namely, when
.
Thus since has roots when
, we can factor the product
out of
to obtain a new polynomial
such that
.
Then, plugging in values of we get
Thus, the least value of
must be the
.
Solving, we receive
, so our answer is
.
Critique
The above solution is incomplete. What is really proven is that 315 is a factor of , if such an
exists. That only rules out answer A.
To prove that the answer is correct, one could exhibit a polynomium that satisfies the requirements with . Here's one:
.
You get that from the matrix
and
and computing
which comes out as the all-integer coefficients above.
Critique of the Critique
Once you find that is a factor of 315, you can instantly find that the answer is 315 because the problem asks for the smallest value of
.
See also
2010 AMC 10B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | ||
Preceded by Problem 24 |
Followed by Last question | |
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 | ||
All AMC 10 Problems and Solutions |
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