Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 5 / 329 of 400 #929 of 1964

Problem 929

AIME late
Algebra Difficulty 5.8 Find the answer

3.343. sin20sin40sin60sin80=316\sin 20^{\circ} \sin 40^{\circ} \sin 60^{\circ} \sin 80^{\circ}=\frac{3}{16}.

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Official solution

## Solution.

(sin20sin40)(sin60sin80)=\left(\sin 20^{\circ} \sin 40^{\circ}\right)\left(\sin 60^{\circ} \sin 80^{\circ}\right)=

=[sinxsiny=12(cos(xy)cos(x+y))]= =\left[\sin x \sin y=\frac{1}{2}(\cos (x-y)-\cos (x+y))\right]=

=12(cos20cos60)12(cos20cos140)==14(cos2012)(cos20cos(18040))==18(2cos201)(cos20+cos40)==18(2cos220+2cos20cos40cos20cos40)==[cosxcosy=12(cos(xy)+cos(x+y))]= \begin{aligned} & =\frac{1}{2}\left(\cos 20^{\circ}-\cos 60^{\circ}\right) \cdot \frac{1}{2}\left(\cos 20^{\circ}-\cos 140^{\circ}\right)= \\ & =\frac{1}{4}\left(\cos 20^{\circ}-\frac{1}{2}\right)\left(\cos 20^{\circ}-\cos \left(180^{\circ}-40^{\circ}\right)\right)= \\ & =\frac{1}{8}\left(2 \cos 20^{\circ}-1\right)\left(\cos 20^{\circ}+\cos 40^{\circ}\right)= \\ & =\frac{1}{8}\left(2 \cos ^{2} 20^{\circ}+2 \cos 20^{\circ} \cos 40^{\circ}-\cos 20^{\circ}-\cos 40^{\circ}\right)= \\ & =\left[\cos x \cos y=\frac{1}{2}(\cos (x-y)+\cos (x+y))\right]= \end{aligned}

=18(2cos220+cos20+cos60cos20cos40)==18(2cos220+12cos2(20))=18(2cos220+122cos220+1)=316. \begin{aligned} & =\frac{1}{8}\left(2 \cos ^{2} 20^{\circ}+\cos 20^{\circ}+\cos 60^{\circ}-\cos 20^{\circ}-\cos 40^{\circ}\right)= \\ & =\frac{1}{8}\left(2 \cos ^{2} 20^{\circ}+\frac{1}{2}-\cos 2\left(20^{\circ}\right)\right)=\frac{1}{8}\left(2 \cos ^{2} 20^{\circ}+\frac{1}{2}-2 \cos ^{2} 20^{\circ}+1\right)=\frac{3}{16} . \end{aligned}

The equality holds.

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