Is there any algebraic solution for the following trigonometrical equation?

Algebra Level 3

Hi. I was working on the area of an ellipse fraction; after some work, I reached the following equation:

15θ+12cos(θ)=5pi

is there any algebraic solution for that?

I myself tried to solve it by simply considering numbers to θ to see if the equality is done.

59.59 degree not

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2 solutions

The approximation cos θ = 1 ( θ ) 2 2 \cos \theta=1-\dfrac{(\theta) ^2}{2} yields the approximate equality 6 θ 2 15 θ + 5 π 12 = 0 6\theta^2-15\theta+5π-12=0 , from which we get the approximate value of θ \theta as 0.2781 4 c \boxed {0.27814^c} or 15.9362 ° \boxed {15.9362\degree}

Hi friend. thank you for your answer. why your answer and Sergio's differ from each other? I mean the numbers 12 and 15 are in the numerator and the denominator of the fraction respectively in Sergio's answer; but in yours, after solving the quadratic equation, we reach a fraction with 12 in the denominator and 15 in the numerator; and also the discriminant equals 513-120π which is hard to calculate the square root of. so I decided to equalize the fractions but I failed. any advice?

Amin Ab Azarsa - 1 year, 6 months ago

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The appearance of the numbers you mentioned in the fractions are different in the two cases because the approaches are different. Since you wanted an algebraic solution, evaluation of the discriminant is necessary. You can use a calculator to evaluate it.

A Former Brilliant Member - 1 year, 6 months ago
Sergio Melo
Nov 29, 2019

I don´t know if my answer is right, but here I go: We could calculate the interval to determine where´s the solution for the equation 15 θ + 12 C o s ( θ ) = 5 π 15θ+12Cos(θ)=5π in this way:

If 15 θ + 12 C o s ( θ ) = 5 π 15θ+12Cos(θ)=5π , then θ = θ= C o s 1 ( 5 π 15 θ 12 ) { Cos }^{ -1 }(\frac { 5\pi -15\theta }{ 12 } ) , according to the inverse function of cosine of x x , 5 π 15 θ 12 \frac{5π-15θ}{12} must be between -1 and 1: 1 5 π 15 θ 12 1 -1\le \frac { 5\pi -15\theta }{ 12 } \le 1 . Solving this inequality the answer must be between this interval: 5 π 12 15 θ 12 + 5 π 15 \frac { 5\pi -12 }{ 15 } \le \theta \le \frac { 12+5\pi }{ 15 } .

If you choose these numbers like the answer you won´t get a solution of this equation and you´ll get that cos ( 5 π 12 15 ) = ± 1 \cos { (\frac { 5\pi \mp 12 }{ 15 } )=\pm 1 } , which is wrong. So we can find a number k k which we could add or subtract to the angle to calculate the answer, however, we can´t estimate the value of k k only with algebra because its value is between an interval. Therefore, I think we couldn´t find algebraically the solution.

We can find an approximated value with the Newton-Raphson method , with this θ 0.27788 \theta \approx 0.27788

Note: All the angles were written in radians

Thank you very much friend. your answer was so good. How do you think about Alak's answer? I tried to solve that quadratic equation; but I reached a discriminant of 513-120π which is hard to solve.

Amin Ab Azarsa - 1 year, 6 months ago

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The identity given of cos(θ) is the small-angle approximation of this function, it´s very useful if the angle approaches 0 radians, so, if you suppose that the solution is a small angle you can substitute cos(θ) with 1-(θ^2/2) and solve the equation. In this case, you must try both solutions if they´re positive and determine which is better for your question. However, you have to consider that these are approximations and the real answer could be a little bit different.

Sergio Melo - 1 year, 6 months ago

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