A legacy from E. I. Zolotarev (1847-1878) (Q1101092)

The legacy consists of four problems on approximation with solutions. Two of these [Z1,Z3] are given with remarks and comments: (Z1) If \(n\geq 2\) is an integer, \(\sigma\) a parameter \(\geq 0\), \(a_ 2,a_ 3,...,a_ n\) arbitrary reals, \(a=(a_ 2,a_ 3,...,a_ n]:\) Determine \[ \min_{a}\quad \max_{-1\leq x\leq 1}| x\quad n-n\sigma x^{n-1}+a_ 2x^{n-2}+...+a_ n| \] and determine the extremal position. (Z3) Let \(n\geq 1\) be an integer, and let k satisfy \(0\leq k\leq 1\); determine the rational function \(y=y(x)=\phi (x)/\psi (x)\), where \(\phi\), \(\psi\) are real polynomials of degrees \(\leq n\) and satisfying \(| y(x)| \leq 1\), -1\(\leq x\leq 1\), which deviates most from zero in the interval \(| x| \geq k^{-1}\).