- #1
ehrenfest
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Homework Statement
Can someone give me a hint on problem 5:
http://math.stanford.edu/~vakil/putnam07/07putnam1.pdf
?
Kummer said:It is a nice problem. First, you need to know that is a polynomial of degree n takes the same value (n+1) times then it must be be a constant polynomial. The problem says P(x) is a polynomial with integer coefficients so it means P(x) is an integer whenever x is an integer. We know that |P(x)|<n^2 whenever |x|<n so it means for x = -(n-1),...,-1,0,1,...,(n-1) we get P(x) = -(n^2-1),...,-1,0,1,...,(n^2-1). Let P(x) be the "pigeons" and x be the "x". By strong pigeonhole at least n+1 of the pigeons end up in the same hole. So it must be constant.
If each pigeonhole has at most n pigeons, then at most how many pigeons are there?ehrenfest said:First of all it should be |P(x)|<n whenever |x|<n^2 and secondly I get that there are 2n^2-1 pigeons flying into n-1 pigeon-holes? I have never heard of the strong pigeonhole principle but I do not see why one of the pigeonholes needs to get n+1 pigeons?
morphism said:P(x) = x. n=1, and |P(x)|<1 whenever |x|<1^2. But P(x) is not constant.
ehrenfest said:First of all it should be |P(x)|<n whenever |x|<n^2 and secondly I get that there are 2n^2-1 pigeons flying into n-1 pigeon-holes?
Okay, it is very simple. If you have 6 pigeonholes and 32 pigeons then there is a pigeonhole that has at least 6 pigeons. In general given h pigeonholes and p pigeons then the number is [n/p] where [ ] here is the ceiling function.ehrenfest said:I have never heard of the strong pigeonhole principle
I call the "basic" pigeonhole to be the one that says that there exists at least one hole having two pigeons. The "strong" one is the generalized argument. I am not sure if that is how it is officially called but that is how I refer to it.ehrenfest said:That is what I would just call the normal pigeonhole principle. Is there a reason you called is "strong"?
To prove that a polynomial is constant, you can use the fact that a polynomial is constant if and only if all of its coefficients are equal to zero. This means that you can set the polynomial equal to a constant value and then solve for the coefficients using algebraic manipulation.
The steps to proving a polynomial is constant include setting the polynomial equal to a constant value, solving for the coefficients using algebraic manipulation, and showing that all coefficients are equal to zero. You may also need to use the properties of polynomials, such as the fact that the degree of a constant polynomial is 0.
No, a polynomial is only considered constant if all of its coefficients are equal to zero. This means that a polynomial cannot have any variables in it, as these would result in non-zero coefficients. However, a polynomial can have a constant term, such as 5, which would result in a constant polynomial.
A constant polynomial is a special type of polynomial where all of the coefficients are equal to zero. This means that the polynomial has a degree of 0 and does not contain any variables. On the other hand, a non-constant polynomial has at least one non-zero coefficient and may contain variables, resulting in a non-zero degree.
No, a polynomial cannot be both constant and non-constant. A polynomial must satisfy one of these conditions: all coefficients are equal to zero (constant) or at least one coefficient is non-zero (non-constant). If a polynomial has both zero and non-zero coefficients, it is not considered a valid polynomial.