Cumbersome Cosines will Cost you

Geometry Level 3

cos ( 1 2 ) cos ( 2 4 ) cos ( 3 6 ) cos ( 4 8 ) cos ( 7 2 ) cos ( 8 4 ) \large \cos(12^\circ) \cos(24^\circ) \cos(36^\circ) \cos(48^\circ) \cos(72^\circ) \cos(84^\circ)

If the expression above equals to a b \frac ab for coprime positive integers a a and b b , what is the value of a + b a + b ?


The answer is 65.

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2 solutions

Shivamani Patil
Jun 27, 2015

Stated expression is equal to

cos 12 ° cos 24 ° cos 36 ° cos 48 ° cos 72 ° cos 84 ° \cos { 12° } \cos { 24° } \cos { 36° } \cos { 48° } \cos { 72° } \cos { 84° }

= ( cos 12 ° cos 24 ° cos 48 ° ) cos 36 ° cos 72 ° cos 84 ° =(\cos { 12° } \cos { 24° } \cos { 48° } )\cos { 36° } \cos { 72° } \cos { 84° }

= ( cos 12 ° cos 24 ° cos 48 ° cos 92 ° ) cos 36 ° cos 72 ° cos ( 90 × 2 92 ) ° = cos 92 ° =-(\cos { 12° } \cos { 24° } \cos { 48° } \cos { 92° } )\cos { 36° } \cos { 72° } \because \cos { (90\times 2 } -92)°=-\cos { 92° }

= sin ( 2 4 × 12 ) ° 2 4 × sin 12 ° × sin ( 2 2 × 36 ) ° 2 2 × sin 36 ° = sin 192 ° × sin 144 ° 64 × sin 12 ° × sin 36 ° = sin ( 180 + 12 ) ° × sin ( 180 36 ) ° 64 × sin 12 ° × sin 36 ° =-\frac { \sin { ({ 2 }^{ 4 }\times 12)° } }{ { 2 }^{ 4 }\times \sin { 12° } } \times \frac { \sin { ({ 2 }^{ 2 }\times 36)° } }{ { 2 }^{ 2 }\times \sin { 36° } } =-\frac { \sin { 192° } \times \sin { 144° } }{ 64\times \sin { 12° } \times \sin { 36° } } =-\frac { \sin { (180+12)° } \times \sin { (180-36)° } }{ 64\times \sin { 12° } \times \sin { 36° } }

= sin 12 ° × sin 36 ° 64 × sin 12 ° × sin 36 ° = 1 64 a + b = 65 =\frac { \sin { 12° } \times \sin { 36° } }{ 64\times \sin { 12° } \times \sin { 36° } } =\frac { 1 }{ 64 } \Rightarrow a+b=65

Ahmad Saad
Nov 22, 2016

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