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algebra intermediate
Problem
Define the function . If , find the product of all possible values of .
Solution
The definition of lets us evaluate : Therefore we want to find all possible for which This is equivalent to When we substitute into the definition of we get so we are looking for all solutions to the equation Assuming , we can multiply both sides by to get so . We note that is not a solution. By Vieta's formulas, the product of the roots of the quadratic equation is , so in this case, the product of the roots is .
Final answer
-\frac{3}{2}