2020 CIME I Problems/Problem 6

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Problem 6

Find the number of complex numbers $z$ satisfying $|z|=1$ and $z^{850}+z^{350}+1=0$.

Solution

We reduce the problem to $z^{17}+z^7+1$, remembering to multiply the final product by 50. We need the imaginary parts of the numbers $z^{17},z^7$ to cancel, which by working modulo 360 we can easily determine only happens when the number is of the form $\cis{15x}$ (Error compiling LaTeX. Unknown error_msg) (this holds true because we are only looking for solutions with a magnitude of $1$). We also need the real parts to sum to $-1$. We check all the multiples of 15 that result in $\cis(x)$ (Error compiling LaTeX. Unknown error_msg) being negative, and find that only two work(or alternatively, if you are good, you can guess that only $120$ and $240$ work). The answer is then $100$.

See also

2020 CIME I (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 5
Followed by
Problem 7
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
All CIME Problems and Solutions

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