Browse · MATH
Printjmc
algebra junior
Problem
Suppose and . Every root of is also a root of . What is the third root of (that is not a root of )?
Solution
Since the roots of are roots of , and , we guess that is a factor of . In other words, we guess that we can write for some polynomial . If that is the case, then any root of will also be a root of .
Dividing by gives us so we can see that is the third root of .
It is also easy to verify that and are roots of both and (the roots can be found by factoring ).
Dividing by gives us so we can see that is the third root of .
It is also easy to verify that and are roots of both and (the roots can be found by factoring ).
Final answer
\frac{3}{2}