Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 4 / 230 of 340 #490 of 1964

Problem 490

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

5.12cos⁡23x+cos⁡24x+cos⁡25x=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.

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Official solution

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

2(cos⁡23x+cos⁡24x+cos⁡25x)=32\left(\cos ^{2} 3 x+\cos ^{2} 4 x+\cos ^{2} 5 x\right)=3

1+cos⁡6x+1+cos⁡8x+1+cos⁡10x=31+\cos 6 x+1+\cos 8 x+1+\cos 10 x=3

cos⁡6x+cos⁡8x+cos⁡10x=0;cos⁡8x+2cos⁡8xcos⁡2x=0;\cos 6 x+\cos 8 x+\cos 10 x=0 ; \cos 8 x+2 \cos 8 x \cos 2 x=0 ;

1) cos⁡8x=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) cos⁡2x=−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),k∈Z\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 reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty, ordering) added by this project.