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37 votes
37 votes

A polynomial $p(x)$ satisfies the following:

  • $p(1) = p(3) = p(5) = 1$ 
  • $p(2) = p(4) = -1$

The minimum degree of such a polynomial is

  1. $1$
  2. $2$
  3. $3$
  4. $4$
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4 Answers

Best answer
52 votes
52 votes

yes, option $D$ is the correct answer. 

Here is how $p(x$) should look like:

Value of $P(x$) will be zero at circled $(O)$ points, so they will be the roots of the polynomial $P(x)$.
Hence, the minimum degree of $P(x)$ will be $4$.

19 votes
19 votes
7 votes
7 votes

For a linear polynomial $p$, you'll always have $p(n+1)−p(n)$ the same. If you write down a table 
 

1     2    3     4   5
p(1) p(2) p(3) p(4) p(5)


which in our case would be this: 
 

1    2    3    4   5
1   -1    1   -1   1

 

and then write the differences $p(2)−p(1)$, $p(3)−p(2)$, etc in a row beneath, you'd get (again in our case) 
 

1    2    3    4   5
1   -1    1   -1   1
  -2    2   -2   2


That new row is called the "first differences". For a linear function, the entries would all be the same. You can also write down second, third and fourth differences: 
 

1    2    3    4   5
1   -1    1   -1   1
  -2    2   -2   2
     4   -4   4
       -8   8
          16
      
For a function with degree 2, the second differences will all be the same. 
In our case fourt difference is same. So degree is 4

Answer is $D$

Ref: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/675110/what-is-the-minimum-degree-of-a-polynomial-given-the-initial-conditions/675137#675137

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6 votes
Minimum Degree is 4 as there are atleast 4 roots possible for this polynomial
Answer:

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