11th Annual Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament

Saturday 23 February 2008

Individual Round: Algebra Test

17
1. [3] Positive real numbers x, y satisfy the equations x2 + y 2 = 1 and x4 + y 4 = 18 . Find xy.
1 1
Answer: 6 We have 2x2 y 2 = (x2 + y 2 )2 − (x4 + y 4 ) = 18 , so xy = 16 .
√
2. [3] Let f (n) be the number of times you have to hit the key on a calculator to get a number less
than 2 starting from n. For instance, f (2) = 1, f (5) = 2. For how many 1 < m < 2008 is f (m) odd?
Answer: 242 This is [21 , 22 ) ∪ [24 , 28 ) ∪ [216 , 232 ) . . . , and 28 < 2008 < 216 so we have exactly the
first two intervals.
3. [4] Determine all real numbers a such that the inequality |x2 + 2ax + 3a| ≤ 2 has exactly one solution
in x.
Answer: 1, 2 Let f (x) = x2 + 2ax + 3a. Note that f (−3/2) = 9/4, so the graph of f is a parabola
that goes through (−3/2, 9/4). Then, the condition that |x2 + 2ax + 3a| ≤ 2 has exactly one solution
means that the parabola has exactly one point in the strip −1 ≤ y ≤ 1, which is possible if and only
if the parabola is tangent to y = 1. That is, x2 + 2ax + 3a = 2 has exactly one solution. Then, the
discriminant ∆ = 4a2 − 4(3a − 2) = 4a2 − 12a + 8 must be zero. Solving the equation yields a = 1, 2.
4. [4] The function f satisfies

f (x) + f (2x + y) + 5xy = f (3x − y) + 2x2 + 1

for all real numbers x, y. Determine the value of f (10).

Answer: −49 Setting x = 10 and y = 5 gives f (10) + f (25) + 250 = f (25) + 200 + 1, from which
we get f (10) = −49.

Remark: By setting y = x2 , we see that the function is f (x) = − 12 x2 + 1, and it can be checked that
this function indeed satisfies the given equation.
5. [5] Let f (x) = x3 + x + 1. Suppose g is a cubic polynomial such that g(0) = −1, and the roots of g are
the squares of the roots of f . Find g(9).
Answer: 899 Let a, b, c be the zeros of f . Then f (x) = (x − a)(x − b)(x − c). Then, the roots of
g are a2 , b2 , c2 , so g(x) = k(x − a2 )(x − b2 )(x − c2 ) for some constant k. Since abc = −f (0) = −1, we
have k = ka2 b2 c2 = −g(0) = 1. Thus,

g(x2 ) = (x2 − a2 )(x2 − b2 )(x2 − c2 ) = (x − a)(x − b)(x − c)(x + a)(x + b)(x + c) = −f (x)f (−x).

Setting x = 3 gives g(9) = −f (3)f (−3) = −(31)(−29) = 899.

6. [5] A root of unity is a complex number that is a solution to z n = 1 for some positive integer n.
Determine the number of roots of unity that are also roots of z 2 + az + b = 0 for some integers a and b.
Answer: 8 The only real roots of unity are 1 and −1. If ζ is a complex root of unity that is also a root
of the equation z 2 +az+b, then its conjugate ζ̄ must also be a root. In this case, |a| = |ζ + ζ̄| ≤ |ζ|+|ζ̄| =
the quadratics z 2 +2z+1, z 2 +z+1, z 2 +1, z 2 −z+1, z 2 −2z+1.
2 and b = ζ ζ̄ = 1. So we only need to check √
1
We find 8 roots of unity: ±1, ±i, 2 (±1 ± 3i).
∞ n−1
X X k
7. [5] Compute .
n=1 k=1
2n+k

1
 4
Answer: 9 We change the order of summation:

∞ n−1 ∞ ∞ ∞
X X k X k X 1 X k 4
= = = .
n=1 k=1
2n+k 2k 2n 4k 9
k=1 n=k+1 k=1

(The last two steps involve the summation of an infinite geometric series, and what is sometimes called
an infinite arithmetico-geometric series. These summations are quite standard, and thus we omit the
details here.)

8. [6] Compute arctan (tan 65◦ − 2 tan 40◦ ). (Express your answer in degrees as an angle between 0◦ and
180◦ .)
Answer: 25◦ First Solution: We have

cot2 25◦ − 1 1
tan 65◦ − 2 tan 40◦ = cot 25◦ − 2 cot 50◦ = cot 25◦ − = = tan 25◦ .
cot 25◦ cot 25◦
Therefore, the answer is 25◦ .

Second Solution: We have

1 + tan 20◦ 4 tan 20◦ (1 − tan 20◦ )2
tan 65◦ −2 tan 40◦ = − = = tan(45◦ −20◦ ) = tan 25◦ .
1 − tan 20◦ 1 − tan2 20◦ (1 − tan 20◦ )(1 + tan 20◦ )

Again, the answer is 25◦ .

9. [7] Let S be the set of points (a, b) with 0 ≤ a, b ≤ 1 such that the equation

x4 + ax3 − bx2 + ax + 1 = 0

has at least one real root. Determine the area of the graph of S.
1
Answer: 4 After dividing the equation by x2 , we can rearrange it as

 2  
1 1
x+ +a x+ −b−2=0
x x

Let y = x+ x1 . We can check that the range of x+ x1 as x varies over the nonzero reals is (−∞, −2]∪[2, ∞).
Thus, the following equation needs to have a real root:

y 2 + ay − b − 2 = 0.

Its discriminant, a2 + 4(b + 2), is always positive since a, b ≥ 0. Then, the maximum absolute value of
the two roots is p
a + a2 + 4(b + 2)
.
2
We need this value to be at least 2. This is equivalent to
p
a2 + 4(b + 2) ≥ 4 − a.

We can square both sides and simplify to obtain

2a ≥ 2 − b

This equation defines the region inside [0, 1] × [0, 1] that is occupied by S, from which we deduce that
the desired area is 1/4.

2
10. [8] Evaluate the infinite sum
∞  
X 2n 1
.
n=0
n 5n

√
Answer: 5 First Solution: Note that

 
2n (2n)! (2n)(2n − 2)(2n − 4) · · · (2) (2n − 1)(2n − 3)(2n − 5) · · · (1)
= = ·
n n! · n! n! n!
n
     
(−2) 1 1 1 1
= 2n · − − −1 − − 2 ··· − − n + 1
n! 2 2 2 2
 1
−2
= (−4)n .
n

Then, by the binomial theorem, for any real x with |x| < 14 , we have
∞  1 ∞  
−1/2
X − n
X 2n
(1 − 4x) = 2 (−4x) = xn .
n=0
n n=0
n

Therefore,
∞    n
X 2n 1 1 √
=q = 5.
n=0
n 5 1− 4
5

Second Solution: Consider the generating function

∞  
X 2n n
f (x) = x .
n=0
n

It has formal integral given by

∞   ∞ ∞
X 1 2n n+1 X X
g(x) = I(f (x)) = x = Cn xn+1 = x Cn xn ,
n=0
n + 1 n n=0 n=0

1 2n

P∞ n
where Cn = n+1 n is the nth Catalan number. Let h(x) = n=0 Cn x ; it suffices to compute this
generating function. Note that
k
!
X X X X
2 i+j
1 + xh(x) = 1 + x Ci Cj x =1+x Ci Ck−i xk = 1 + Ck+1 xk+1 = h(x),
i,j≥0 k≥0 i=0 k≥0

where we’ve used the recurrence relation for the Catalan numbers. We now solve for h(x) with the
quadratic equation to obtain
p √
1/x ± 1/x2 − 4/x 1 ± 1 − 4x
h(x) = = .
2 2x
1
Note that we must choose the − sign in the ±, since the + would lead to a leading term of for h (by
√ x
expanding 1 − 4x into a power series). Therefore, we see that
 √ 
1 − 1 − 4x 1
f (x) = D(g(x)) = D(xh(x)) = D =√
2 1 − 4x
√
and our answer is hence f (1/5) = 5.