Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon
Another question on polys/complex numbers:
Suppose
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white \alpha)
is a root of the polynomial.
Let
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white \alpha = Rcis\theta)
such that
Then by substituting this into our polynomial and letting it equal to 0 (since we are assuming it's a root) and by using De Moivre's Theorem, we obtain:
If we plotted these points on an Argand Diagram,
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white a_0)
would be on the positive real axis given that
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white a_k > 0)
.
The leading term would lay in the first two quadrants, unless
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white \theta = \frac{\pi}{n})
, in which case it would lay on the negative real axis.
All terms in between would lay in the first two quadrants such that their imaginary components are positive.
By vector addition, since all points have
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white Im(z) > 0)
, we can never arrive at 0, and hence
Therefore we have a contradiction - our assumption is wrong. Hence we can deduce that
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white P(z))
has no roots
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white \alpha)
where
Note by a symmetrical argument we can justify it holds true when all the points obey the condition
![](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\bg_white Im(z) < 0)
.