Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 4 / 190 of 340 #450 of 1964

Problem 450

AMC 12 late, AIME early
Algebra Difficulty 4.8 Find the answer

5.12cos23x+cos24x+cos25x=1.55.12 \cos ^{2} 3 x+\cos ^{2} 4 x+\cos ^{2} 5 x=1.5

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Official solution

5.12 Let's use the formula for reducing the power (4.17):

2(cos23x+cos24x+cos25x)=32\left(\cos ^{2} 3 x+\cos ^{2} 4 x+\cos ^{2} 5 x\right)=3

1+cos6x+1+cos8x+1+cos10x=31+\cos 6 x+1+\cos 8 x+1+\cos 10 x=3

cos6x+cos8x+cos10x=0;cos8x+2cos8xcos2x=0;\cos 6 x+\cos 8 x+\cos 10 x=0 ; \cos 8 x+2 \cos 8 x \cos 2 x=0 ;

1) cos8x=0;8x=π2+πk;x1=π16(2k+1)\cos 8 x=0 ; 8 x=\frac{\pi}{2}+\pi k ; x_{1}=\frac{\pi}{16}(2 k+1);
2) cos2x=12;2x=±2π3+2πk;x2=π3(3k±1)\cos 2 x=-\frac{1}{2} ; 2 x= \pm \frac{2 \pi}{3}+2 \pi k ; x_{2}=\frac{\pi}{3}(3 k \pm 1).

Answer: x1=π16(2k+1),x2=π3(3k±1),kZ\quad x_{1}=\frac{\pi}{16}(2 k+1), x_{2}=\frac{\pi}{3}(3 k \pm 1), k \in Z.

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