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Saturday, February 6, 2016

Quadratic equation: The relationship between solutions and coefficients 1

Question:
The roots of x^2 - 5x + 3 = 0 are \alpha and \beta. Another quadratic equation x^2 + px + q =0 has roots, \alpha^3 and \beta^3. Find p and q.

Answer:
If \alpha and \beta are the roots of a quadratic equation, ax^2 + bx + c = 0 \quad (a\neq 0), the coefficients and roots have the following relationship:
\alpha + \beta = -\frac{b}{a}, \\ \alpha \cdot \beta = \frac{c}{a}
From the first equation, we have
\alpha + \beta = 5, \\ \alpha \cdot \beta = 3
From the other equation, they can be expressed as
\alpha^3+\beta^3 = -p, \\ (\alpha\beta)^3 = q
We can easily have
q = 27
However, \alpha^3+\beta^3 should be modified as follows:
\begin{eqnarray*} \alpha^3+\beta^3 &=& (\alpha+\beta)(\alpha^2 -\alpha\beta + \beta^2)  \\                              &=& (\alpha+\beta)(\alpha^2 +2\alpha\beta + \beta^2 - 3\alpha\beta)  \\                             &=& (\alpha+\beta)((\alpha + \beta)^2 - 3\alpha\beta) \end{eqnarray*}
Therefore, we obtain
p = - (\alpha+\beta)((\alpha + \beta)^2 - 3\alpha\beta) = 5 \cdot (5^2 - 3 \cdot 3) = -80

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