John Lesieutre from State College Area High School, Pennsylvania, USA and Marcos Charalambides from Cyprus sent in excellent solutions to this problem.
Using q(x)=1 we get 2= Λ1 + Λ2 + Λ3 .
Using q(x)=x we get 0= Λ1 3 5 + Λ3 3 5 so Λ1 = Λ3 .
Using q(x)= x2 we get 2 3 = 3 Λ1 5 + 3 Λ3 5 = 6 Λ1 5 so Λ1 = 5 9 = Λ3 and Λ2 = 8 9 .
Now if q(x)=a+bx+c x2 (that is, a general quadratic), then -1 1 a+bx+c x2 dx=2a+ 2c 3 , and Λ1 q(- 3 5 )+ Λ2 q(0)+ Λ3 q( 3 5 )= 5 9 (a-b 3 5 + 3c 5 )+ 8a 9 + 5 9 (a+b 3 5 + 3c 5 )= 10a 9 + 8a 9 + 2c 3 =2a+ 2c 3 so the formula works for all quadratics.
Using the same idea as above, to check that it works for cubics, quartics and quintics, we only have to check it for x3 , x4 and x5 .
-1 1 x3 dx=0 and 5 9 (- 3 5 3 5 )+ 5 9 ( 3 5 3 5 )=0.
-1 1 x4 dx= 2 5 and 5 9 ( 9 25 )+ 5 9 ( 9 25 )= 2 5 .
-1 1 x5 dx=0 and 5 9 (- 9 25 3 5 )+ 5 9 (- 9 25 3 5 )=0.
-1 1 x6 dx= 2 7 but 5 9 ( 27 125 )+ 5 9 ( 27 125 )= 6 25 .
So the formula works for cubics, quartics and quintics, but not for higher powers.