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Algebra Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Find the answer

4.79cos3π5cos6π54.79 \cos \frac{3 \pi}{5} \cos \frac{6 \pi}{5}.

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Solution

4.79 Method I. Let A=cos3π5cos6π5A=\cos \frac{3 \pi}{5} \cos \frac{6 \pi}{5}. Multiplying both sides of this equation by 2sin3π52 \sin \frac{3 \pi}{5}, we get

2Asin3π5=2sin3π5cos3π5cos6π5;2Asin3π5=sin6π5cos6π5;2 A \sin \frac{3 \pi}{5}=2 \sin \frac{3 \pi}{5} \cos \frac{3 \pi}{5} \cos \frac{6 \pi}{5} ; 2 A \sin \frac{3 \pi}{5}=\sin \frac{6 \pi}{5} \cos \frac{6 \pi}{5} ;

2Asin3π5=12sin12π5;2Asin3π5=12sin2π52 A \sin \frac{3 \pi}{5}=\frac{1}{2} \sin \frac{12 \pi}{5} ; 2 A \sin \frac{3 \pi}{5}=\frac{1}{2} \sin \frac{2 \pi}{5}.

But sin2π5=sin(π3π5)=sin3π5\sin \frac{2 \pi}{5}=\sin \left(\pi-\frac{3 \pi}{5}\right)=\sin \frac{3 \pi}{5}, from which A=14A=\frac{1}{4}.

Method II. We have

A=cos3π5cos6π5=2sin3π5cos3π5cos6π52sin3π5==sin12π54sin3π5=sin2π54sin3π5=14 \begin{aligned} & A=\cos \frac{3 \pi}{5} \cos \frac{6 \pi}{5}=\frac{2 \sin \frac{3 \pi}{5} \cos \frac{3 \pi}{5} \cos \frac{6 \pi}{5}}{2 \sin \frac{3 \pi}{5}}= \\ & =\frac{\sin \frac{12 \pi}{5}}{4 \sin \frac{3 \pi}{5}}=\frac{\sin \frac{2 \pi}{5}}{4 \sin \frac{3 \pi}{5}}=\frac{1}{4} \end{aligned}

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