MathDB
Numbers on blackboard

Source: Tournament of Towns 2016 oral round p6

March 21, 2016
Polynomialsnumber theoryalgebra

Problem Statement

NN different numbers are written on blackboard and one of these numbers is equal to 00.One may take any polynomial such that each of its coefficients is equal to one of written numbers ( there may be some equal coefficients ) and write all its roots on blackboard.After some of these operations all integers between āˆ’2016-2016 and 20162016 were written on blackboard(and some other numbers maybe). Find the smallest possible value of NN .