Let be defined by . The number of points satisfying the equation
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For arccos ( x ) I used what is typically considered to be the principal arc cosine. This returns a value between 0 and π . I'll divide the domain into four equal intervals, and examine them. As x goes from 0 to π , the range of arccos ( x ) is the same as the domain of cos ( x ) , so they exactly invert each other. Hence, f ( x ) = x for 0 ≤ x ≤ π . Next, from x = π to x = 2 π , I used the identity cos ( 2 π − x ) = cos ( x ) to adjust the angle to always be between 0 and π so that the domain of cos matches the range of arccos, so we can again cancel the cos and arccos. Hence, f ( x ) = 2 π − x for π ≤ x ≤ 2 π . The next two relevant identities are cos ( x − 2 π ) = cos ( x ) and cos ( 4 π − x ) = cos ( x ) . This leads to four equations corresponding to each interval: x = x 1 0 − x for 0 ≤ x ≤ π , 2 π − x = x 1 0 − x for π ≤ x ≤ 2 π , x − 2 π = x 1 0 − x for 2 π ≤ x ≤ 3 π , 4 π − x = x 1 0 − x for 3 π ≤ x ≤ 4 π . Only the first three have solutions inside their respective intervals.