Difference between revisions of "1984 USAMO Problems/Problem 1"
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− | Let the four roots be <math>a, b, c, and d</math>, so that <math>ab=-32</math>. From here we show two methods; the second is more slick, but harder to see. | + | Let the four roots be <math>a, b, c,</math> and <math>d</math>, so that <math>ab=-32</math>. From here we show two methods; the second is more slick, but harder to see. |
Solution #1 | Solution #1 |
Revision as of 11:52, 22 June 2014
Problem
In the polynomial , the product of
of its roots is
. Find
.
Solution
Let the four roots be and
, so that
. From here we show two methods; the second is more slick, but harder to see.
Solution #1
Using Vieta's formulas, we have:
$\begin{align*}a+b+c+d &= 18,\\ ab+ac+ad+bc+bd+cd &= k,\\ abc+abd+acd+bcd &=-200,\\ abcd &=-1984.\\ \end{align*}$ (Error compiling LaTeX. Unknown error_msg)
From the last of these equations, we see that . Thus, the second equation becomes
, and so
. The key insight is now to factor the left-hand side as a product of two binomials:
, so that we now only need to determine
and
rather than all four of
.
Let and
. Plugging our known values for
and
into the third Vieta equation,
, we have
. Moreover, the first Vieta equation,
, gives
. Thus we have two linear equations in
and
, which we solve to obtain
and
.
Therefore, we have , yielding
.
Solution #2 (sketch)
We start as before: and
. We now observe that a and b must be the roots of a quadratic,
, where r is a constant (secretly, r is just -(a+b)=-p from Solution #1). Similarly, c and d must be the roots of a quadratic
.
Now
$<cmath> \begin{align*}x^4-18x^3+kx^2+200x-1984 &= (x^2+rx-32)(x^2+sx+62)\\ & = x^4+(r+s)x^3+(62-32+rs)x^2+(62s-32r)x-1984.\end{align*} </cmath>$ (Error compiling LaTeX. Unknown error_msg)
Equating the coefficients of and
with their known values, we are left with essentially the same linear equations as in Solution #1, which we solve in the same way. Then we compute the coefficient of
and get
See Also
1984 USAMO (Problems • Resources) | ||
Preceded by First Problem |
Followed by Problem 2 | |
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 | ||
All USAMO Problems and Solutions |
The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions.