Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it Bulgaria

Problem:
Find all positive integers nn for which the equality
sin(nα)sinαcos(nα)cosα=n1 \frac{\sin (n \alpha)}{\sin \alpha}-\frac{\cos (n \alpha)}{\cos \alpha}=n-1
holds true for all αkπ2,kZ\alpha \neq \frac{k \pi}{2}, \quad k \in \mathbb{Z}.

Solution

Solution:
The equality is equivalent to
sin(n1)α=(n1)sin2α2 \sin (n-1) \alpha=\frac{(n-1) \sin 2 \alpha}{2}
When n4n \geq 4 setting α=π4\alpha=\frac{\pi}{4} gives
sin((n1)π4)=n1232 \sin \left((n-1) \frac{\pi}{4}\right)=\frac{n-1}{2} \geq \frac{3}{2}
a contradiction.
When n=1n=1 and n=3n=3 the equality (1) is an identity and when n=2n=2 we have sinα=sin(2α)2\sin \alpha=\frac{\sin (2 \alpha)}{2}, which is not true for α=π4\alpha=\frac{\pi}{4}. Therefore the answer is n=1n=1 and n=3n=3.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.