2005 AMC 12A Problems/Problem 24
Problem
Let . For how many polynomials does there exist a polynomial of degree 3 such that ?
Solution
Since has degree three, then has degree six. Thus, has degree six, so must have degree two, since has degree three.
Hence, we conclude , , and must each be , , or . Since a quadratic is uniquely determined by three points, there can be different quadratics after each of the values of , , and are chosen.
However, we have included which are not quadratics. Namely,
Clearly, we could not have included any other constant functions. For any linear function, we have . Again, it is pretty obvious that we have not included any other linear functions. Therefore, the desired answer is .
See also
2005 AMC 12A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | |
Preceded by Problem 23 |
Followed by Problem 25 |
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All AMC 12 Problems and Solutions |
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