2023 IMO Problems/Problem 3

Revision as of 11:30, 3 October 2023 by Tomasdiaz (talk | contribs) (Solution)

Problem

For each integer $k \geqslant 2$, determine all infinite sequences of positive integers $a_1, a_2, \ldots$ for which there exists a polynomial $P$ of the form $P(x)=x^k+c_{k-1} x^{k-1}+\cdots+c_1 x+c_0$, where $c_0, c_1, \ldots, c_{k-1}$ are non-negative integers, such that \[P\left(a_n\right)=a_{n+1} a_{n+2} \cdots a_{n+k}\] for every integer $n \geqslant 1$.

Solution

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhThDz0H7cI [Video contains solutions to all day 1 problems]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP-7LgQh0uY [Video contains solution to problem 3]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmJn5FKxpPY [Video contains another solution to problem 3]

Let $f(n)$ and $g(i)$ be functions of positive integers n and i respectively.

Let $a_{n}=a_{1}+f(n)$, then $a_{n+1}=a_{1}+f(n+1)$, $a_{n+k}=a_{1}+f(n+k)$

Let $P=\prod_{i=1}^{k}\left ( a_{n+i} \right ) = \prod_{i=1}^{k}\left ( a_{n}+g(i)) \right )$