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Mind your P and Q (Posted on 2007-02-28) Difficulty: 3 of 5
Mr. P's teenaged girlfriend Miss Q is a student of mathematics. Miss Q brought a well framed crochet with a polynomial in X ( having integer coefficients ) stitched on it as the birthday present on his birthday sometime this year. The polynomial is so constructed that one of its roots is equal to Mr. P's age ( in years) on his birthday (this year).

Someone present at the birthday party tried to find its root, not being aware that the root stood for the age of the host. He substituted X=8, which gave him 64. He tried a different number slightly greater than 8 but less than 16, which gave him 70.

If Mr. P is older than his 16- year old girlfriend, how old was he on his birthday this year?

See The Solution Submitted by K Sengupta    
Rating: 5.0000 (1 votes)

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Question quesiton | Comment 1 of 2
In order for the polynomial to have roots, it must be a complete equation (e.g.  x³-2x²+4x-17=0).  By "substituting x=8", are we to assume the equation is set up in the preceding form, and when 8 is input for x, the equation will then equal 64 instead of 0?
  Posted by hoodat on 2007-03-01 13:36:45
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