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PrintSPANISH MATHEMATICAL OLYMPIAD (FINAL ROUND)
Spain algebra
Problem
Let , and be real numbers such that has exactly three different real roots; these roots are , and for some real number . Find all possible values of , .
Solution
that is, provided that , , are , and respectively. We consider now the following cases: If , and then , and If , and then and it follows that We have discarded , and because and must be real numbers. * If , and then and
Final answer
y ∈ {π/7, 2π/7, 3π/7, 4π/7, 5π/7, 6π/7} ∪ {π/8, 3π/8, 5π/8, 7π/8} ∪ {π/9, 2π/9, π/3, 4π/9, 5π/9, 2π/3, 7π/9, 8π/9}
Techniques
Vieta's formulas