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Relevant wiki: Roots of Unity
A solution using roots of unity: first note that the expression we want is S = tan 2 ( 9 2 π ) + tan 2 ( 9 4 π ) + tan 2 ( 9 8 π ) . Now consider the 9th cyclotomic polynomial Φ 9 = x 6 + x 3 + 1 which has roots x = cis ( 9 2 π k ) for integer k with g cd ( k , 9 ) = 1 . Then with the transformation t = x + x 1 = 2 cos ( 9 2 π k ) we obtain the polynomial t 3 − 3 t + 1 whose roots are t = 2 cos ( 9 2 π k ) for k ∈ { 1 , 2 , 4 } . Finally make y = t 2 4 − t 2 ⟹ t 2 = y + 1 4 to obtain the polynomial y 3 − 3 3 y 2 + 2 7 y − 3 whose roots are y = tan 2 ( 9 2 π k ) for k ∈ { 1 , 2 , 4 } . By Vieta's formulas, S = − 1 − 3 3 = 3 3 .