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Puzzles

17 December

If you expand \((a+b+c)^2\), you get \(a^2+b^2+c^2+2ab+2ac+2bc\). This has 6 terms.
How many terms does the expansion of \((a+b+c+d+e+f)^5\) have?

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14 December

The function \(f(x)=ax+b\) (where \(a\) and \(b\) are real constants) satisfies
$$-x^3+2x^2+6x-9\leqslant f(x)\leqslant x^2-2x+3$$
whenever \(0\leqslant x\leqslant3\). What is \(f(200)\)?

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18 December

The expansion of \((x+y+z)^3\) is
$$x^3 + y^3 + z^3 + 3x^2y + 3x^2z + 3xy^2 + 3y^2z + 3xz^2 + 3yz^2 + 6xyz.$$
This has 10 terms.
Today's number is the number of terms in the expansion of \((x+y+z)^{26}\).

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Tags: algebra

10 December

For all values of \(x\), the function \(f(x)=ax+b\) satisfies
$$8x-8-x^2\leqslant f(x)\leqslant x^2.$$
What is \(f(65)\)?
Edit: The left-hand quadratic originally said \(8-8x-x^2\). This was a typo and has now been corrected.

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7 December

The sum of the coefficients in the expansion of \((x+1)^5\) is 32. Today's number is the sum of the coefficients in the expansion of \((2x+1)^5\).

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Tags: algebra

18 December

There are 6 terms in the expansion of \((x+y+z)^2\):
$$(x+y+z)^2=x^2+y^2+z^2+2xy+2yz+2xz$$
Today's number is number of terms in the expansion of \((x+y+z)^{16}\).

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Tags: algebra

10 December

The equation \(x^2+1512x+414720=0\) has two integer solutions.
Today's number is the number of (positive or negative) integers \(b\) such that \(x^2+bx+414720=0\) has two integer solutions.

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Powerful quadratics

Source: nrich
Find all real solutions to
$$(x^2-7x+11)^{(x^2-11x+30)}=1.$$

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