Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2023/3/d/solution

The fundamental theorem of algebra factors into linear factors over ; homogenizing supplies factors of if the degree is less than three. Thus every nonzero homogeneous cubic is for linear forms , with absorbed into one factor.
For pairwise nonproportional factors, part (c) assigns three distinct tangent lines to . Their pairwise intersections are , , and . There cannot be a common point of all three: a nonzero quadratic cannot be divisible by three pairwise nonproportional linear factors, by unique factorization. Hence the three lines form a triangle circumscribed about .

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