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jmc

algebra intermediate

Problem

Find , where is the sum of the absolute values of all roots of the following equation:
Solution
Let Then the given equation says Notice that any root of is also a root of since if then replacing with four times gives In fact, the roots of are the only roots of This is because, upon expanding both equations, they become quadratics in so they both have exactly two roots for

Thus, it suffices to solve or By the quadratic formula, we have The root is negative (while the other root is positive), so the sum of the absolute values of the roots is The answer is
Final answer
383