Olympiad Maths Prep

Track / Stage 3 / 41 of 260 #41 of 2000

Problem 41

AMC 10/12, early questions
Algebra Difficulty 3.1 Find the answer

Given tan(π4+α)=2\tan (\frac{π}{4}+α)=2, find sin2α\sin 2α. The options are:
A: 13\frac{1}{3}
B: 13-\frac{1}{3}
C: 35\frac{3}{5}
D: 35-\frac{3}{5}

Official solution

We're given that tan(π4+α)=2\tan (\frac{π}{4}+α)=2. To find sin2α\sin 2α, we'll use the trigonometric identity for the tangent of a sum of angles, which is:
tan(A+B)=tanA+tanB1tanAtanB\tan(A + B) = \frac{\tan A + \tan B}{1 - \tan A \tan B}

Let A=π4A = \frac{π}{4} and B=αB = α. Then, tanπ4=1\tan \frac{π}{4} = 1, and we can substitute these values into the identity:
2=tan(π4+α)=1+tanα1tanα2 = \tan (\frac{π}{4}+α) = \frac{1 + \tan α}{1 - \tan α}

Solving for tanα\tan α, we get:
tanα=211+2=13\tan α = \frac{2 - 1}{1 + 2} = \frac{1}{3}

Now, to find sin2α\sin 2α, we'll use the double-angle identity for sine:
sin2α=2tanα1+tan2α\sin 2α = \frac{2\tan α}{1 + \tan^2 α}

Substituting tanα=13\tan α = \frac{1}{3} into the identity:
sin2α=2131+(13)2=231+19=23109=35\sin 2α = \frac{2 \cdot \frac{1}{3}}{1 + (\frac{1}{3})^2} = \frac{\frac{2}{3}}{1 + \frac{1}{9}} = \frac{\frac{2}{3}}{\frac{10}{9}} = \boxed{\frac{3}{5}}

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