Determine the number of real solution of which satisfy the equation above.
This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try
refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and,
finally, (c)
loading the
non-javascript version of this page
. We're sorry about the hassle.
Let arctan x = ß . If we draw a right triangle where the side opposite to ß is a and the side adjacent to ß is b , then x = tan ( ß ) = b a . Now, ß = 1/arccot(x) = 1/arccot(a/b) If we take cot ( ( π / 2 ) − ß ) , we get b a . Thus, arccot(a/b) = (π/2)-ß. By substitution, ß = ( ( π / 2 ) − ß ) 1 , meaning that − ß 2 + ( π / 2 ) ß − 1 = 0 . The discriminant comes out to be ( π 2 / 4 ) − 1 < 0 , meaning that there are no values of ß satisfying the original equation. No calculus requried!