Found problems: 3597
1984 Swedish Mathematical Competition, 4
Find all positive integers $p$ and $q$ such that all the roots of the polynomial $(x^2 - px+q)(x^2 -qx+ p)$ are positive integers.
2007 Princeton University Math Competition, 10
Find the real root of $x^5+5x^3+5x-1$. Hint: Let $x = u+k/u$.
1983 Putnam, B6
Let $ k$ be a positive integer, let $ m\equal{}2^k\plus{}1$, and let $ r\neq 1$ be a complex root of $ z^m\minus{}1\equal{}0$. Prove that there exist polynomials $ P(z)$ and $ Q(z)$ with integer coefficients such that $ (P(r))^2\plus{}(Q(r))^2\equal{}\minus{}1$.
2016 IMO Shortlist, N8
Find all polynomials $P(x)$ of odd degree $d$ and with integer coefficients satisfying the following property: for each positive integer $n$, there exists $n$ positive integers $x_1, x_2, \ldots, x_n$ such that $\frac12 < \frac{P(x_i)}{P(x_j)} < 2$ and $\frac{P(x_i)}{P(x_j)}$ is the $d$-th power of a rational number for every pair of indices $i$ and $j$ with $1 \leq i, j \leq n$.
2004 Romania National Olympiad, 2
Let $P(n)$ be the number of functions $f: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}$, $f(x)=a x^2 + b x + c$, with $a,b,c \in \{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ and that have the property that $f(x)=0$ has only integer solutions. Prove that $n<P(n)<n^2$, for all $n \geq 4$.
[i]Laurentiu Panaitopol[/i]
2012 Iran MO (3rd Round), 4
$P(x)$ and $Q(x)$ are two polynomials with integer coefficients such that $P(x)|Q(x)^2+1$.
[b]a)[/b] Prove that there exists polynomials $A(x)$ and $B(x)$ with rational coefficients and a rational number $c$ such that $P(x)=c(A(x)^2+B(x)^2)$.
[b]b)[/b] If $P(x)$ is a monic polynomial with integer coefficients, Prove that there exists two polynomials $A(x)$ and $B(x)$ with integer coefficients such that $P(x)$ can be written in the form of $A(x)^2+B(x)^2$.
[i]Proposed by Mohammad Gharakhani[/i]
2015 Azerbaijan National Olympiad, 3
Find all polynomials $P(x)$ with real coefficents such that \[P(P(x))=(x^2+x+1)\cdot P(x)\] where $x \in \mathbb{R}$
2013 Iran Team Selection Test, 3
For nonnegative integers $m$ and $n$, define the sequence $a(m,n)$ of real numbers as follows. Set $a(0,0)=2$ and for every natural number $n$, set $a(0,n)=1$ and $a(n,0)=2$. Then for $m,n\geq1$, define \[ a(m,n)=a(m-1,n)+a(m,n-1). \] Prove that for every natural number $k$, all the roots of the polynomial $P_{k}(x)=\sum_{i=0}^{k}a(i,2k+1-2i)x^{i}$ are real.
2011 All-Russian Olympiad, 4
There are some counters in some cells of $100\times 100$ board. Call a cell [i]nice[/i] if there are an even number of counters in adjacent cells. Can exactly one cell be [i]nice[/i]?
[i]K. Knop[/i]
2002 Romania Team Selection Test, 2
Let $P(x)$ and $Q(x)$ be integer polynomials of degree $p$ and $q$ respectively. Assume that $P(x)$ divides $Q(x)$ and all their coefficients are either $1$ or $2002$. Show that $p+1$ is a divisor of $q+1$.
[i]Mihai Cipu[/i]
1997 Korea National Olympiad, 6
Find all polynomial $P(x,y)$ for any reals $x,y$ such that
(i) $x^{100}+y^{100}\le P(x,y)\le 101(x^{100}+y^{100})$
(ii) $(x-y)P(x,y)=(x-1)P(x,1)+(1-y)P(1,y).$
PEN J Problems, 4
Let $m$, $n$ be positive integers. Prove that, for some positive integer $a$, each of $\phi(a)$, $\phi(a+1)$, $\cdots$, $\phi(a+n)$ is a multiple of $m$.
1968 Yugoslav Team Selection Test, Problem 4
If a polynomial of degree n has integer values when evaluated in each of $k,k+1,\ldots,k+n$, where $k$ is an integer, prove that the polynomial has integer values when evaluated at each integer $x$.
2019 AMC 12/AHSME, 21
How many quadratic polynomials with real coefficients are there such that the set of roots equals the set of coefficients? (For clarification: If the polynomial is $ax^2+bx+c,a\neq 0,$ and the roots are $r$ and $s,$ then the requirement is that $\{a,b,c\}=\{r,s\}$.)
$\textbf{(A) } 3 \qquad\textbf{(B) } 4 \qquad\textbf{(C) } 5 \qquad\textbf{(D) } 6 \qquad\textbf{(E) } \text{infinitely many}$
1989 Balkan MO, 2
Let $\overline{a_{n}a_{n-1}\ldots a_{1}a_{0}}$ be the decimal representation of a prime positive integer such that $n>1$ and $a_{n}>1$. Prove that the polynomial $P(x)=a_{n}x^{n}+\ldots +a_{1}x+a_{0}$ cannot be written as a product of two non-constant integer polynomials.
1986 IMO Shortlist, 7
Let real numbers $x_1, x_2, \cdots , x_n$ satisfy $0 < x_1 < x_2 < \cdots< x_n < 1$ and set $x_0 = 0, x_{n+1} = 1$. Suppose that these numbers satisfy the following system of equations:
\[\sum_{j=0, j \neq i}^{n+1} \frac{1}{x_i-x_j}=0 \quad \text{where } i = 1, 2, . . ., n.\]
Prove that $x_{n+1-i} = 1- x_i$ for $i = 1, 2, . . . , n.$
2013 Math Prize For Girls Problems, 10
The following figure shows a [i]walk[/i] of length 6:
[asy]
unitsize(20);
for (int x = -5; x <= 5; ++x)
for (int y = 0; y <= 5; ++y)
dot((x, y));
label("$O$", (0, 0), S);
draw((0, 0) -- (1, 0) -- (1, 1) -- (0, 1) -- (-1, 1) -- (-1, 2) -- (-1, 3));
[/asy]
This walk has three interesting properties:
[list]
[*] It starts at the origin, labelled $O$.
[*] Each step is 1 unit north, east, or west. There are no south steps.
[*] The walk never comes back to a point it has been to.[/list]
Let's call a walk with these three properties a [i]northern walk[/i]. There are 3 northern walks of length 1 and 7 northern walks of length 2. How many northern walks of length 6 are there?
2010 German National Olympiad, 5
The polynomial $x^8 +x^7$ is written on a blackboard. In a move, Peter can erase the polynomial $P(x)$ and write down $(x+1)P(x)$ or its derivative $P'(x).$ After a while, the linear polynomial $ax+b$ with $a\ne 0$ is written on the board. Prove that $a-b$ is divisible by $49.$
2009 Today's Calculation Of Integral, 428
Let $ f(x)$ be a polynomial and $ C$ be a real number.
Find the $ f(x)$ and $ C$ such that $ \int_0^x f(y)dy\plus{}\int_0^1 (x\plus{}y)^2f(y)dy\equal{}x^2\plus{}C$.
ICMC 7, 3
Let $N{}$ be a fixed positive integer, $S{}$ be the set $\{1, 2,\ldots , N\}$ and $\mathcal{F}$ be the set of functions $f:S\to S$ such that $f(i)\geqslant i$ for all $i\in S.$ For each $f\in\mathcal{F}$ let $P_f$ be the unique polynomial of degree less than $N{}$ satisfying $P_f(i) = f(i)$ for all $i\in S.$ If $f{}$ is chosen uniformly at random from $\mathcal{F}$ determine the expected value of $P_f'(0)$ where\[P_f'(0)=\frac{\mathrm{d}P_f(x)}{\mathrm{d}x}\bigg\vert_{x=0}.\][i]Proposed by Ishan Nath[/i]
2008 Brazil Team Selection Test, 2
Find all polynomials $P (x)$ with complex coefficients such that $$P (x^2) = P (x) · P (x + 2)$$
for any complex number $x.$
2018 India Regional Mathematical Olympiad, 2
Find the set of all real values of $a$ for which the real polynomial equation $P(x)=x^2-2ax+b=0$ has real roots, given that $P(0)\cdot P(1)\cdot P(2)\neq 0$ and $P(0),P(1),P(2)$ form a geometric progression.
2023 Taiwan TST Round 2, N
Find all polynomials $P$ with real coefficients satisfying that there exist infinitely many pairs $(m, n)$ of coprime positives integer such that $P(\frac{m}{n})=\frac{1}{n}$.
[i]
Proposed by usjl[/i]
2013 Greece Team Selection Test, 1
Determine whether the polynomial $P(x)=(x^2-2x+5)(x^2-4x+20)+1$ is irreducible over $\mathbb{Z}[X]$.
2010 Romanian Masters In Mathematics, 6
Given a polynomial $f(x)$ with rational coefficients, of degree $d \ge 2$, we define the sequence of sets $f^0(\mathbb{Q}), f^1(\mathbb{Q}), \ldots$ as $f^0(\mathbb{Q})=\mathbb{Q}$, $f^{n+1}(\mathbb{Q})=f(f^{n}(\mathbb{Q}))$ for $n\ge 0$. (Given a set $S$, we write $f(S)$ for the set $\{f(x)\mid x\in S\})$.
Let $f^{\omega}(\mathbb{Q})=\bigcap_{n=0}^{\infty} f^n(\mathbb{Q})$ be the set of numbers that are in all of the sets $f^n(\mathbb{Q})$, $n\geq 0$. Prove that $f^{\omega}(\mathbb{Q})$ is a finite set.
[i]Dan Schwarz, Romania[/i]