Let t=1/x. After multiplying the equation by t10, 1+(13−t)10=0⇒(13−t)10=−1.
Using DeMoivre, 13−t=cis(10(2k+1)π) where k is an integer between 0 and 9.
t=13−cis(10(2k+1)π)⇒tˉ=13−cis(−10(2k+1)π).
Since cis(θ)+cis(−θ)=2cos(θ), ttˉ=170−26cos(10(2k+1)π) after expanding. Here k ranges from 0 to 4 because two angles which sum to 2π are involved in the product.
The expression to find is ∑ttˉ=850−26∑k=04cos10(2k+1)π.
But cos10π+cos109π=cos103π+cos107π=cos2π=0 so the sum is 850.
Solution 2
Divide both sides by x10 to get
1+(13−x1)10=0
Rearranging:
(13−x1)10=−1
Thus, 13−x1=ω where ω=ei(πn/5+π/10) where n is an integer.
We see that x1=13−ω. Thus,
xx1=(13−ω)(13−ω)=169−13(ω+ω)+ωω=170−13(ω+ω)
Summing over all terms:
r1r11+⋯+r5r51=5⋅170−13(eiπ/10+⋯+ei(9π/5+π/10))
However, note that eiπ/10+⋯+ei(9π/5+π/10)=0 from drawing the numbers on the complex plane, our answer is just
5⋅170=850
Solution 3(Ileytyn)
Let us apply difference of squares, by writing this equation as (x5)2−(i[13x−1]5)2=0, where i=−1.
Once applied, we have
(x5−i[13x−1]5)(x5+i[13x−1]5)=0
By factorization, we get that either
equation 1: x5−i[13x−1]5=0 or equation 2: x5+i[13x−1]5=0
We find the trivial solution to the first equation x5=i[13x−1]5, and since a fifth root of i=i5 is i, we can find this solution by taking the fifth root, or when x=(13x−1)i, which when solved, gives x=13i−1i=17013−i. By using a similar approach to the second equation, x5+i[13x−1]5=0, or x=−i(13x−1), we get 13i+1i=17013+i. We observe that these are conjugates. We also note that zz=∣z∣2. Hence, we find the magnitude of one of these two conjugates, which is 1701, or as we are finding the reciprocal of the square value of this, this contributes 170 to the final answer. We claim that each of the roots of equation one is a conjugate of one of equation 2. We also notice that, by an application of DeMoivre's, each of the roots has the same magnitude, just a different angle. Hence, as each of the reciprocals of product of conjugates has the value 170, and there are 5 of these pairs of conjugates, the answer is