2024 AMC 12A Problems/Problem 23
Contents
- 1 Problem
- 2 Solution 1 (Trigonometric Identities)
- 3 Solution 2 (Another Identity)
- 4 Solution 3 (Complex Numbers)
- 5 Solution 5 (Transformation)
- 6 Solution 6 (Half angle formula twice)
- 7 Solution 7 (Find each individual tan)
- 8 Solution 8 (single formula)
- 9 Solution 9 (Vietas)
- 10 Alternate proof of the two tangent squares formula
- 11 Solution 10 (Options)
- 12 Video Solution
- 13 See also
Problem
What is the value of
Solution 1 (Trigonometric Identities)
First, notice that
Here, we make use of the fact that
Hence,
Note that
Hence,
Therefore, the answer is .
~tsun26
Solution 2 (Another Identity)
First, notice that
Here, we make use of the fact that
Hence,
Therefore, the answer is .
Solution 3 (Complex Numbers)
Let . Then,
Expanding by using a binomial expansion,
Divide by
and notice we can set
where
. Then, define
so that
Notice that we can have because we are only considering the real parts. We only have this when
, meaning
. This means that we have
as unique roots (we get them from
) and by using the fact that
, we get
Since we have a monic polynomial, by the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra,
Looking at the
term in the expansion for
and using vietas gives us
Since
and
Therefore
Solution 5 (Transformation)
Set x = , 7x =
- x ,
set C7 =
, C5 =
, C3 =
, C=
, S2 =
, S6 =
First, notice that
Solution 6 (Half angle formula twice)
So from the question we have:
Using
Using
Using
~ERiccc
Solution 7 (Find each individual tan)
The half angle formula for is
and the half angle formula for cosine is
We can use this to find each tan:
The problem's expression can be factored as So the answer is
Solution 8 (single formula)
We use
for
vladimir.shelomovskii@gmail.com, vvsss
Solution 9 (Vietas)
As the above solutions noted, we can factor the expression into .
Before we directly solve this problem, let's analyze the roots of , or equivalently using tangent expansion formula,
, which implies
. Now note that the roots of this equation are precisely
, so the second symmetric sum of these four numbers is
by Vieta's. Thus, we have
Upon further inspection,
using the fact that
. Hence, we have
Now, we return to the problem statement, where we see a similar squared sum. We use this motivation to square our equation above to obtain
Then, use the fact that
to get
Hold on; the first term is exactly what we are solving for! It thus suffices to find
. Fortunately, this is just
(Where
is the nth symmetric sum), with relation to roots of
. By Vieta's, this is just
.
Finally, we plug this value into our equation to obtain
Alternate proof of the two tangent squares formula
We want to simplify +
. We make use of the fact that
=
.Then, the expression becomes
+
.
Notice we can write:
as
+
+ 2 as tangent and cotangent are reciprocals of each other. Then, the sum of the tangent and cotangent can be simplified to
. Using the fact that secant is the reciprocal of cosine and tangent is the ratio of sine and cosine, we can simplify that expression to
. So, we have that:
+
=
which can be simplfied to:
or
as stated in earlier solutions.
~ilikemath247365
Solution 10 (Options)
For this question, there are five options: \(28\), \(68\), \(70\), \(72\), and \(84\). Since \(28\) is too small and \(84\) is too large, these two options can be eliminated. At this point, only three options remain. While one could make a guess here, it is better to analyze these remaining options further. When we divide each of these three options by \(2\), we get \(34\), \(35\), and \(36\) respectively. Option C (\(70\)) should be eliminated because, after division by \(2\), it is the only odd number among the three results. Last but not least, Option D (\(72\)) appears excessively frequently in AMC answer choices. Therefore, it is reasonable to conjecture that the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) will avoid using this option again for AMC, leading to the elimination of D. As a result, the only remaining option is B (\(68\)).
Video Solution
See also
2024 AMC 12A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | |
Preceded by Problem 22 |
Followed by Problem 24 |
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 | |
All AMC 12 Problems and Solutions |
These problems are copyrighted © by the Mathematical Association of America, as part of the American Mathematics Competitions.