Feel the Power of cos ( 2 θ ) \cos\left(2\theta\right) !

Calculus Level 3

Jimmy started with θ = π \theta = \pi . Playing around with the following double-angle cosine formula

cos ( 2 θ ) = 2 cos 2 ( θ ) 1 \cos\left(2\theta\right) = 2\cos^2\left(\theta\right) - 1

He made the following list of all cosine values in the following descending angle order cos ( π ) = 1 cos ( π 2 ) = 0 cos ( π 4 ) = 2 2 cos ( π 8 ) = 2 + 2 2 cos ( π 16 ) = 2 + 2 + 2 2 cos ( π 32 ) = 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 2 \begin{array}{rl} \cos(\pi) &= -1\\ \cos\left(\dfrac{\pi}{2}\right) &= 0\\ \cos\left(\dfrac{\pi}{4}\right) &= \dfrac{\sqrt{2}}{2}\\ \cos\left(\dfrac{\pi}{8}\right) &= \dfrac{\sqrt{2 + \sqrt{2}}}{2}\\ \cos\left(\dfrac{\pi}{16}\right) &= \dfrac{\sqrt{2 + \sqrt{2 + \sqrt{2}}}}{2}\\ \cos\left(\dfrac{\pi}{32}\right) &= \dfrac{\sqrt{2 + \sqrt{2 + \sqrt{2 + \sqrt{2}}}}}{2}\\ \vdots & \quad \vdots \end{array} Noticing the increasing number of \sqrt \ 's and 2's, he then wrote down lim n cos ( π 2 n ) = 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 2 2 = 1 \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} \cos\left(\dfrac{\pi}{2^n}\right) = \dfrac{\sqrt{2 + \sqrt{2 + \sqrt{2 + \cdots}}}}{2} = \dfrac{2}{2} = 1 If he were to follow these similar steps from θ = π k \theta = \dfrac{\pi}{k} , where k > 0 k > 0 , can he also achieve the following limit to be 1? lim n cos ( π 2 n k ) = 1 \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} \cos\left(\dfrac{\pi}{2^n \cdot k}\right) = 1

No. It depends on some value of k k . Yes.

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1 solution

Curtis Clement
Jul 26, 2017

The cosine function cos(x) is continuous on R \mathbb{R} (most notably at x = 0) so it follows that: lim n c o s ( π 2 n k ) = c o s ( lim n ( π 2 n k ) ) = c o s ( 0 ) = 1 \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty } cos( \frac{\pi}{2^n \cdot k}) = cos( \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty } (\frac{\pi}{2^n \cdot k}) ) = cos(0) = 1

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