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Combinatorics Difficulty 6.8 National olympiad Prove it

Prove that En=arccosn1narccot2n1E_n=\frac{\arccos {\frac{n-1}{n}} } {\text{arccot} {\sqrt{2n-1} }} is a natural number for any natural number nn.
(A natural number is a positive integer)

Solution

1. Define αn=arccot(2n1)\alpha_n = \text{arccot}(\sqrt{2n-1}). By definition, cot(αn)=2n1\cot(\alpha_n) = \sqrt{2n-1}.
2. Recall the trigonometric identity for cos2(x)\cos^2(x):
cos2(x)=11+tan2(x) \cos^2(x) = \frac{1}{1 + \tan^2(x)}
3. Using the double-angle formula for cosine, we have:
cos(2αn)=2cos2(αn)1 \cos(2\alpha_n) = 2\cos^2(\alpha_n) - 1
4. Substitute cos2(αn)\cos^2(\alpha_n) using the identity:
cos2(αn)=11+tan2(αn) \cos^2(\alpha_n) = \frac{1}{1 + \tan^2(\alpha_n)}
5. Since tan(αn)=1cot(αn)\tan(\alpha_n) = \frac{1}{\cot(\alpha_n)}, we get:
tan(αn)=12n1 \tan(\alpha_n) = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2n-1}}
6. Substitute tan(αn)\tan(\alpha_n) into the expression for cos2(αn)\cos^2(\alpha_n):
cos2(αn)=11+(12n1)2=11+12n1=12n1+12n1=2n12n \cos^2(\alpha_n) = \frac{1}{1 + \left(\frac{1}{\sqrt{2n-1}}\right)^2} = \frac{1}{1 + \frac{1}{2n-1}} = \frac{1}{\frac{2n-1+1}{2n-1}} = \frac{2n-1}{2n}
7. Now, substitute cos2(αn)\cos^2(\alpha_n) back into the double-angle formula:
cos(2αn)=2(2n12n)1=2(2n1)2n1=4n22n1=4n22n2n=2n22n=n1n \cos(2\alpha_n) = 2 \left(\frac{2n-1}{2n}\right) - 1 = \frac{2(2n-1)}{2n} - 1 = \frac{4n-2}{2n} - 1 = \frac{4n-2 - 2n}{2n} = \frac{2n-2}{2n} = \frac{n-1}{n}
8. Therefore, we have:
cos(2αn)=n1n \cos(2\alpha_n) = \frac{n-1}{n}
9. This implies:
2αn=arccos(n1n) 2\alpha_n = \arccos\left(\frac{n-1}{n}\right)
10. Finally, we can express EnE_n as:
En=arccos(n1n)arccot(2n1)=2αnαn=2 E_n = \frac{\arccos\left(\frac{n-1}{n}\right)}{\text{arccot}(\sqrt{2n-1})} = \frac{2\alpha_n}{\alpha_n} = 2
11. Since 22 is a natural number, the result follows.

\blacksquare

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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.