(a) We want to find odd multiples of π that are close to integers.
- Solution 1: One way to do that is to remember that π is somewhat close to 722. Then when we multiply π by a multiple of 7, we should get something close to an integer. In particular, 7π, 21π, and 35π should be reasonably close to 7(722)=22, 21(722)=66, and 35(722)=110, respectively. We check whether they are close enough:
7π≈21.9921π≈65.9735π≈109.96
So indeed, 22, 66, and 110 are all within 0.1 of some odd multiple of π.
Since the cosine of an odd multiple of π is −1, we expect all of the sequence values to be close to −1. Using a calculator:
a22a66a110=cos(22)≈−0.99996,=cos(66)≈−0.99965,=cos(110)≈−0.99902
- Solution 2: Alternately, we could have just listed odd multiple of π until we found three that are close to integers.
2k+11357911131517192123252729313335(2k+1)π3.149.4215.7121.9928.2734.5640.8447.1253.4159.6965.9772.2678.5484.8291.1197.39103.67109.96
Some earlier odd multiples of π (like 15π and 29π) get fairly close to integers, but not within 0.1.
(b) If x=122k+1π for some integer k (that is, x is an odd multiple of π/2), then cosx=0. So, we can either list out the first few terms of an until we find three that are very close to 0, or we can use our approximation π≈7221 to choose values of n that are close to
22k+1π.
- Solution 1: 22k+1π≈2×7(2k+1)×22=11×72k+1
So, we expect our values to be close to integers when
2k+1 is a multiple of 7. For example, 2k+1=7, 2k+1=21, and 2k+1=35.
We check:
x 7×2πA≈10.9955721×2π≈32.9867235×2π≈54.97787n113355ana11≈0.0044a33≈−0.0133a55≈0.0221
These seem like values of an that are all pretty close to 0.
- Solution 2: We could have listed the first several values of an, and looked for some that are close to 0.
n12345678910an0.54−0.42−0.99−0.650.280.960.75−0.15−0.91−0.84
Oof. Nothing very close yet. Maybe a better way is to list values of 22k+1π, and see which ones are close to integers.
2k+1135791113151719212325272931333522k+1π1.574.717.8510.99614.1417.2820.4223.5626.7029.8532.9936.1339.2742.4145.5548.6951.8454.98
We find roughly the same candidates we did in Solution 1, depending on what we're ready to accept as “close".
(c) One can use the same strategies as we did for parts (a) and (b). But since we already know some n's with cos(n) close to −1, it's easier to use the trig identity
cos(2m)=2cos2(m)−1
This identity shows that if cos(m) is close to −1, then cos(2m) is close to +1. So let's try
n=2m=2×22=44, 2×66=132 and 2×110=220.
n44132220an0.99980.99860.9961
They do the trick.
Remark: it is possible to turn the ideas of this question into a rigorous proof
that n→∞limcosn is undefined.
- Let, for each integer k≥1, nk be the integer that is closest to
2kπ. Then 2kπ−21≤nk≤2kπ+21 so that
cos(nk)≥cos21≥0.8. Consequently, if
n→∞limcosn=c exists, we must have c≥0.8.
- Let, for each integer k≥1, nk′ be the integer that is closest to
(2k+1)π. Then (2k+1)π−21≤nk′≤(2k+1)π+21
so that
cos(nk′)≤−cos21≤−0.8. Consequently, if
n→∞limcosn=c exists, we must have c≤−0.8.
- It is impossible to have both c≥0.8 and c≤−0.8,
so n→∞limcosn does not exist.
Remark: This question also hints at a property of the set of all numbers cos(n), with n running over the integers. Mathematicians say that this set is “dense in the interval [−1,1]”. This means that if you pick any number −1≤r≤1, there is an integer n such that cos(n), while not necessarily being exactly r, is as close to r as you like. If you feed “cos(n) dense” into your favourite search engine, you can find out more.