Question

The harmonic mean of a collection of numbers is the reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of the reciprocals of the numbers in the collection. For example, the harmonic mean of $4, 4,$ and $5$ is $\frac{1}{\frac{1}{3}\left(\frac{1}{4} + \frac{1}{4} + \frac{1}{5}\right)} = \frac{30}{7}.$ What is the harmonic mean of all the real roots of the $4050$ th degree polynomial $\prod_{k=1}^{2025}(kx^2 - 4x - 3) = (x^2 - 4x - 3)(2x^2 - 4x - 3)(3x^2 - 4x - 3)\cdots(2025x^2 - 4x - 3)?$

$-\dfrac{5}{3}$

$-\dfrac{3}{2}$

$-\dfrac{6}{5}$

$-\dfrac{5}{6}$

$-\dfrac{2}{3}$

Solution:

Each factor $kx^2 - 4x - 3$ has discriminant $16 + 12k \gt 0,$ so it has two real roots; there are $4050$ roots in all.

For the roots of $kx^2 - 4x - 3,$ the sum of reciprocals is $\dfrac{\text{sum}}{\text{product}} = \dfrac{4/k}{-3/k} = -\dfrac{4}{3},$ independent of $k.$

Summing over all $2025$ factors, $\displaystyle\sum \frac{1}{r} = 2025\left(-\frac{4}{3}\right) = -2700.$ The harmonic mean is $\frac{4050}{-2700} = -\frac{3}{2}.$

Thus, the correct answer is B.

2025 AMC 12A Problem 12

Solution:

Problem 12 in Other Years