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jmc

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 ).
Final answer
\frac{3}{2}