2005 AIME II Problems/Problem 13

Problem

Let $P(x)$ be a polynomial with integer coefficients that satisfies $P(17)=10$ and $P(24)=17.$ Given that $P(n)=n+3$ has two distinct integer solutions $n_1$ and $n_2,$ find the product $n_1\cdot n_2.$

Solution

As above, we define $Q(x)=P(x)-x+7$ , noting that it has roots at $17$ and $24$ . Hence $P(x)-x+7=A(x-17)(x-24)$ . In particular, this means that $P(x)-x-3=A(x-17)(x-24)-10$ . Therefore, $x=n_1,n_2$ satisfy $A(x-17)(x-24)=10$ , where $A$ , $(x-17)$ , and $(x-24)$ are integers. This cannot occur if $x\le 17$ or $x\ge 24$ because the product $(x-17)(x-24)$ will either be too large or not be a divisor of $10$ . We find that $x=19$ and $x=22$ are the only values that allow $(x-17)(x-24)$ to be a factor of $10$ . Hence the answer is $19\cdot 22=\boxed{418}$ .

2005 AIME II (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 12	Followed by Problem 14
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15
All AIME Problems and Solutions

Page

Toolbox

Search

2005 AIME II Problems/Problem 13

Problem

Solution

See also