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Problems from Ukrainian Authors

Ukraine algebra

Problem

Assume () are pairwise different polynomials with coefficients , , or and such that do not have integer roots. Additionally, . Prove that for some and . Note that may be equal , and may be equal .
Solution
Since the polynomials do not have integer roots then for any and . Let us consider all pairs of polynomials and , such that and . For each pair of polynomials we determine . If and are the number of polynomials such that and respectively, then the number of polynomials will be Note that coefficients of polynomials may be only equal to . Hence, the coefficients of cannot be bigger than by absolute value. Therefore if and only if and are the same, because , .

It is easy to see that is divisible by . Moreover, (otherwise is the zero polynomial which is impossible) and . Therefore, can take at most different values. But the overall number of polynomials is bigger than , because This implies that for some . Consequently, for some , which finishes the proof.

Techniques

Polynomial operationsPigeonhole principle