Re: Simple, but a bit hard, Trigonometry problem.

In article <f364ps$5bt$02$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
kilian heckrodt <kilianheckrodt@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hmmm... 1 approach that I see is:

73=87-(49+5)+8*5=87-49+7*5 and then repeatedly apply
sin(x+y)=sin(x)cos(y)+sin(y)cos(x) and cos(x)=sqrt(1-sin(x)^2)
but this is still a somewhat tedious way to go.

I went in that direction, with 73 = (87 + 49)/2 + 5 : angle-sum, half-angle,
angle-sum. But it was pretty messy, and I got sidetracked into some playing
with cyclotomic polynomials in hopes that they might provide a shortcut.
They didn't, as far as my feeble efforts could take it.

--
Randy Hudson
.

Relevant Pages