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HSC 2013 MX2 Marathon (archive) (4 Viewers)

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Trebla

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon

What I did:

Construct a polynomial in the form:



Now let the roots of this polynomial be our three unknown integers, denoted by

as it is the sum of the roots.



So









So we have the polynomial

Now we want which is just the product of the roots, which is just -4 by observing the polynomial.
@ Sy123, this was what I was thinking of
 

Sy123

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon

What I did:

Construct a polynomial in the form:



Now let the roots of this polynomial be our three unknown integers, denoted by

as it is the sum of the roots.



So









So we have the polynomial

Now we want which is just the product of the roots, which is just -4 by observing the polynomial.
Ah yes your way is a bit faster than my one.
 

Sy123

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon



 
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Sy123

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon

Use gradient formula, equate gradients, then turn the sum into products using those formulae that are easily derivable, we end up with



Note that:





Since they are all less than 2pi, and the points do not coincide.

We end up with:



Cotangent is periodic by pi, and since all angles are less than 2pi we only take the first case, which is: (note p+q =/= s+r)



Rearrange and we are done.
 

shongaponga

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon

Use gradient formula, equate gradients, then turn the sum into products using those formulae that are easily derivable, we end up with



Note that:





Since they are all less than 2pi, and the points do not coincide.

We end up with:



Cotangent is periodic by pi, and since all angles are less than 2pi we only take the first case, which is: (note p+q =/= s+r)



Rearrange and we are done.
Nice job Sy.

Alternatively, from the line you posted instead of simplifying down to cotangents and using the fact cot is periodic by pi, you can cross-multiply the sin's on the denominators and then bring everything to the one side to make the equation = 0. This would yield the equation to be in the form sinAcosB - cosAsinB = 0 = sin (A-B). Which then leads to the same result. Not a quicker method, just an alternative :).
 

Sy123

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon

I just made this:









 

seanieg89

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon



Difficulty rating: 4/5.
 
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Sy123

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon



Difficulty rating: 4/5.
A couple of questions:

When you mean decreasing, you mean |a| is decreasing right?
And in difficulty, what difficulty would you rate Q8 2010 HSC? (Just so I can compare how YOU view difficulty)
 

seanieg89

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon

A couple of questions:

When you mean decreasing, you mean |a| is decreasing right?
And in difficulty, what difficulty would you rate Q8 2010 HSC? (Just so I can compare how YOU view difficulty)
|a|=a, remember this sequence is positive.

2 because they walk you through everything, although I will admit that there are many places for the average MX2 student to go wrong. The scale is more the calibrated to the questions I post here than the HSC questions themselves. If you can answer half of the things I post then the only thing that can hold you back in the HSC is silly mistakes/speed.
 

Sy123

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon

|a|=a, remember this sequence is positive.

2 because they walk you through everything, although I will admit that there are many places for the average MX2 student to go wrong. The scale is more the calibrated to the questions I post here than the HSC questions themselves. If you can answer half of the things I post then the only thing that can hold you back in the HSC is silly mistakes/speed.
Ok so the sequence that we have to work with is only for real numbers? Because the assumption you gave us before said a is a complex number, so I just got a little confused.

Thank you for clearing it up
 

seanieg89

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon

Ah yep, a more general phrasing of the problem would use cis instead of cos, in which case we would need the assumption for all complex sequences.
 
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