Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ib Paper 3 10E b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Choose a coprime presentationFor a polynomial , write . Symmetry of givesSince is a unique factorization domain and , one has and . Exchanging the variables preserves total degree, sofor nonzero constants . The displayed identity gives , and applying the exchange twice gives .
If , then , so divides both polynomials, contradicting coprimality. Therefore , and both and are symmetric. Taking and proves the claim, which is the symmetric rational function in two variables result.