The discriminant of a quadratic polynomial () is a source of confusion for many students taking O Level A Maths. After explaining, students usually will understand the concept, but it remains really tricky. It is a really useful concept, and can be used here in this Math Olympiad Question:
Solution: http://www.fen.bilkent.edu.tr/~cvmath/Problem/1411a.pdf
One of the above people who answered correctly, Toshihiro Shimizu, is an IMO Gold Medalist from Japan.
Featured Book:
Mathematical Olympiad Challenges
Highly Rated on Amazon!
Hundreds of beautiful, challenging, and instructive problems from algebra, geometry, trigonometry, combinatorics, and number theory
Historical insights and asides are presented to stimulate further inquiry
Emphasis is on creative solutions to open-ended problems

One thought on “Discriminant of Quadratic Polynomial Olympiad Question”