Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /461 of 520

Algebra Difficulty 4.6 AIME Prove it

Given that sin230+sin290+sin2150=32{\sin }^{2}{30}^{\circ }+{\sin }^{2}{90}^{\circ }+{\sin }^{2}{150}^{\circ }=\frac{3}{2} and sin25+sin265+sin2125=32{\sin }^{2}{5}^{\circ }+{\sin }^{2}{65}^{\circ }+{\sin }^{2}{125}^{\circ }=\frac{3}{2}, observe the pattern of these two equations and write a general proposition that holds true for any angle α\alpha, and provide a proof.

Solution

From the given equations, we can observe and infer the following general proposition:
sin2(α60)+sin2α+sin2(α+60)=32{\sin }^{2}(\alpha -{60}^{\circ })+{\sin }^{2}\alpha +{\sin }^{2}(\alpha +{60}^{\circ })=\frac{3}{2}

Let's prove this proposition. The left side of the equation can be rewritten as:

Left side=1cos(2α120)2+1cos2α2+1cos(2α+120)2=3212[cos(2α120)+cos2α+cos(2α+120)]=32(since the sum of cosines equals 0)\begin{aligned} \text{Left side} &=\frac{1-\cos (2\alpha -120^{\circ })}{2}+\frac{1-\cos 2\alpha }{2}+\frac{1-\cos (2\alpha +120^{\circ })}{2} \\ &=\frac{3}{2}-\frac{1}{2}\left[ \cos (2\alpha -120{}^\circ )+\cos 2\alpha +\cos (2\alpha +120{}^\circ ) \right] \\ &=\frac{3}{2} \quad \text{(since the sum of cosines equals 0)} \end{aligned}

This matches the right side of the equation. Therefore, the proposition is proven to be correct, and we can conclude that:

sin2(α60)+sin2α+sin2(α+60)=32\boxed{{\sin }^{2}(\alpha -{60}^{\circ })+{\sin }^{2}\alpha +{\sin }^{2}(\alpha +{60}^{\circ })=\frac{3}{2}}

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.