1973 A-Level Pure Mathematics Paper I

1. (a) Prove that , if a and b are positive numbers such that a 2  b 2 , then a < b .
(b) Prove that , if k is a positive integer , then k  1  k  1  2 k . Hence deduce that
1
 k  1 k  1 .
k
(c) Using (b) or otherwise , prove that , for any positive integer n ,
1 1 1
1   ...   n  1 n  1. (1973)
2 3 n

2. (a) It is known that 2 is irrational . Show that , if A and B are rational numbers such that
AB 2 0 ,then A=B=0.
(b) f ( x )a 0  a 1x  a 2 x 2 ...a n x n is a polynomial with rational coefficients , c and d are rational
numbers.
(i) Show that , for each positive integer k , (c  d 2 ) k  A k  B k 2 and (c  d 2 ) k  A k  B k 2 ,
where A k , B k are rational numbers.
(ii) Hence prove that , if c  d 2 is a root of f(x) , then c  d 2 is also a root of f(x).
(c) Solve the equation x 4  x 3  6x 2  5x  1  0 given that 1  2 is a root. (1973)

a b
3. For any real 2  2 matrix A    we define Tr(A) to be the sum a + d of the diagonal elements of
c d 
A.
(a) Show that , for any real 2 2 matrices A , B and any real number t ,
(i) Tr (A + B) = Tr (A) + Tr (B)
(ii) Tr (tA) = t Tr (A)
(iii) Tr (AB) = Tr (BA)
Hence or otherwise , prove that , for any real 2 2 matrices A and B , AB - BA  I , where I is
the 2 2 identity matrix.
(b) Let M be the set of all 2 2 real matrices A satisfying Tr(A) = 0.
(i) Show that M forms a commutative group under matrix addition.
(ii) Does M form a ring under matrix addition and multiplication? Why? (1973)

4. (a) Let A(x) be a polynomial of degree n in x , with real coefficients and n real roots x 1 , x 2 ,..., x n .
n 1 A' (x )
Prove that   , where A ' (x) is the derivative of A(x) .
i 1 x  x A(x )
i
n 1 [A' ( x)]2  A(x)A"( x)
Hence or otherwise, prove that   .
i 1 ( x  x )
2
i A 2 (x)
2x  1
(b) Resolve into partial fractions .
( x  1) 2
(c) Let x1 , x 2 , x 3 , x 4 be the roots of the polynomial B(x)= x 4  10x 2  1 ( You can assume that all the
4 2x i  1
roots of B(x) are real .) Using (a) and (b) or otherwise , evaluate the sum  . (1973)
i  1 ( x  1)
2
i
  x1 
 
5. Let V be the real vector space of all real 3 x 1 matrices x  x 2  under matrix addition and scalar
x 
 3
multiplication; and let A be any fixed real 3 x 3 matrix. A mapping  :V V is given by:
( x )  A x for every x in V.
(a) Using properties of matrix multiplication and addition , show that for all x, y in V and for all real
numbers  , ( x  y)  ( x )( y), and ( x )   ( x ).
(b) Let K be the set of all those vectors of V which are mapped by  to the zero vector o of V.
Show that o  K and that, if x, y  K and  is any real number, then x + y  K and  xK .
 1 2  1 0 
   
(c) If A  1  1 1  , determine the value of the real number a so that the vector  a   ( x ) for
 4 1 2   5a 
   
 x1  0 
   
some x  x 2  in V, and find all vectors x which are mapped to  a  when a assumes this value.
x   5a 
 3  

(1973)

6. (a) Show that the quadratic function f(x) = Ax 2  2Bx  C , where A , B , C are real , is positive for all
real values of x if and only if A > 0 and B 2  AC.
(b) Find the range of m for which the quadratic function g(x) = (m 2  4m  5) x 2  2(m  1) x  3 is
positive for all real values of x.
2
 n   n 2  n 2 
(c) Let a 1 ,a 2 , . . . , a n ; b1 , b 2 , . . . , b n be real numbers . Prove that   a i b i    a i   b i 
 i1   i1  i1 

(1973)

7. A box contains fifteen cards of which one, two, three, four, five are marked 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 respectively.
(a) Three cards are drawn successively (without replacement) from the box and then placed from left to
right in the order that they are drawn to form a 3-digit number. What is the probability that this number
is greater than or equal to 345?
(b) A game is played in the following manner: A card is drawn from these fifteen cards and, if this card is
marked n, a single die is thrown n times. The game is won when and only when 1 turns up exactly
four times among these n throws. What is the probability that the game is won?
(1973)

8. Let R 3 be the set of all ordered triples of real numbers. A relation S in R 3 \{(0, 0, 0)} is given by:
( x 0 , x 1 , x 2 ) S ( y 0 , y1 , y 2 ) if and only if there is a non-zero real number λ such that x k  y k , k = 0, 1, 2.
(a) Show that S is an equivalence relation in R 3 \{(0, 0, 0)} .
(b) Let [ x 0 , x1 , x 2 ] be the equivalence class of ( x 0 , x1 , x 2 ) by S, and let P 2 be the set of all equivalence
classes. If R 3 is the set of all ordered pairs of real numbers, show that the mapping i : R 2  P 2 , given
by i( x1 , x 2 ) [1, x1 , x 2 ] , is injective.
(c) A subject L of P 2 is defined by L {[ x 0 , x 1 , x 2 ] P 3 : x 0  0} . Show that
i [R 2 ]  L   and P 2  i[R 2 ]  L . (1973)