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59th Ukrainian National Mathematical Olympiad

Ukraine algebra

Problem

It is given that real roots of a quadratic polynomial are also roots of polynomial . Analogously, both real roots of a quadratic polynomial are also roots of . What values can take?
Solution
Since is a cubic polynomial, it has no more than three real roots, hence, quadratic polynomials and have the same root. Let us denote this root by . Then,

Then, the equality must hold: . By collecting coefficients of , we obtain that the equation must be satisfied:

It is easy to find an explicit form of polynomials , and , which satisfy the given statement:
Final answer
0

Techniques

Polynomial operations