2023 AIME II Problems/Problem 8

Problem

Let $\omega = \cos\frac{2\pi}{7} + i \cdot \sin\frac{2\pi}{7},$ where $i = \sqrt{-1}.$ Find the value of the product $\prod_{k=0}^6 \left(\omega^{3k} + \omega^k + 1\right).$

Solution 1

For any $k\in Z$ , we have, $\begin{align*} & \left( \omega^{3k} + \omega^k + 1 \right) \left( \omega^{3\left( 7 - k \right)} + \omega^{\left( 7 - k \right)} + 1 \right) \\ & = \omega^{3 \cdot 7} + \omega^{2k + 7} + \omega^{3k} + \omega^{-2k + 3 \cdot 7} + \omega^7 + \omega^k + \omega^{3\left( 7 - k \right)} + \omega^{\left( 7 - k \right)} + 1 \\ & = 1 + \omega^{2k} + \omega^{3k} + \omega^{-2k} + 1 + \omega^k + \omega^{-3k} + \omega^{-k} + 1 \\ & = 2 + \omega^{-3k} \sum_{j=0}^6 \omega^{j k} \\ & = 2 + \omega^{-3k} \frac{1 - \omega^{7 k}}{1 - \omega^k} \\ & = 2 . \end{align*}$ The second and the fifth equalities follow from the property that $\omega^7 = 1$ .

Therefore, $\begin{align*} \Pi_{k=0}^6 \left( \omega^{3k} + \omega^k + 1 \right) & = \left( \omega^{3 \cdot 0} + \omega^0 + 1 \right) \Pi_{k=1}^3 \left( \omega^{3k} + \omega^k + 1 \right) \left( \omega^{3\left( 7 - k \right)} + \omega^{\left( 7 - k \right)} + 1 \right) \\ & = 3 \cdot 2^3 \\ & = \boxed{\textbf{(024) }}. \end{align*}$

~Steven Chen (Professor Chen Education Palace, www.professorchenedu.com)

Solution 2 (Moduli)

Because the answer must be a positive integer, it is just equal to the modulus of the product. Define $z_n = \left(\textrm{cis }\frac{2n\pi}{7}\right)^3 + \textrm{cis }\frac{2n\pi}{7} + 1$ .

Then, our product is equal to

$|z_0||z_1||z_2||z_3||z_4||z_5||z_6|.$

$z_0 = 0$ , and we may observe that $z_x$ and $z_{7-x}$ are conjugates for any $x$ , meaning that their magnitudes are the same. Thus, our product is

$3|z_1|^2|z_2|^2|z_3|^2$ $= 3((\cos \frac{6\pi}{7} + \cos \frac{2\pi}{7} + 1)^2 + (\sin \frac{6\pi}{7} + \sin \frac{2\pi}{7})^2) ((\cos \frac{12\pi}{7} + \cos \frac{4\pi}{7} + 1)^2 + (\sin \frac{12\pi}{7} + \sin \frac{4\pi}{7})^2)$ ((\cos \frac{4\pi}{7} + \cos \frac{6\pi}{7} + 1)^2 + (\sin \frac{4\pi}{7} + \sin \frac{6\pi}{7})^2) $Let us simplify the first term. Expanding, we obtain$ \cos^2 \frac{6\pi}{7} + \cos^2 \frac{2\pi}{7} + 1 + 2\cos \frac{6\pi}{7}\cos \frac{2\pi}{7} + 2\cos \frac{6\pi}{7} + 2\cos \frac{2\pi}{7} + \sin^2 \frac{6\pi}{7} + \sin^2 \frac{2\pi}{7} + 2\sin \frac{6\pi}{7}\sin \frac{2\pi}{7}. $Rearranging and cancelling, we obtain$ 3 + 2\cos \frac{6\pi}{7} + 2\cos \frac{2\pi}{7} + 2\cos \frac{6\pi}{7}\cos \frac{2\pi}{7} + 2\sin \frac{6\pi}{7}\sin \frac{2\pi}{7}.$$ (Error compiling LaTeX. Unknown error_msg)

By the cosine subtraction formula, we have $2\cos \frac{6\pi}{7}\cos \frac{2\pi}{7} + 2\sin \frac{6\pi}{7}\sin \frac{2\pi}{7} = \cos \frac{6\pi - 2\pi}{7} = \cos \frac{4\pi}{7}$ .

Thus, the first term is equivalent to

$3 + 2(\cos \frac{2\pi}{7} + \cos \frac{4\pi}{7} + \cos \frac{6\pi}{7}).$

Similarly, the second and third terms are, respectively,

$3 + 2(\cos \frac{4\pi}{7} + \cos \frac{8\pi}{7} + \cos \frac{12\pi}{7}),\textrm{ and}$ $3 + 2(\cos \frac{6\pi}{7} + \cos \frac{12\pi}{7} + \cos \frac{4\pi}{7}).$

Now, we have $\cos \frac{2\pi}{7} + \cos \frac{4\pi}{7} + \cos \frac{6\pi}{7} = -\frac{1}{2}$ . This is because

$\cos \frac{2\pi}{7} + \cos \frac{4\pi}{7} + \cos \frac{6\pi}{7} = \frac{1}{2}(\textrm{cis }\frac{2\pi}{7} + \textrm{cis }\frac{4\pi}{7} + \textrm{cis }\frac{6\pi}{7} + \textrm{cis }\frac{8\pi}{7} + \textrm{cis }\frac{10\pi}{7} + \textrm{cis }\frac{12\pi}{7})$

$= \frac{1}{2}(-1)$ $= -\frac{1}{2}.$

Therefore, the first term is simply $2$ . We have $\cos x = \cos 2\pi - x$ , so therefore the second and third terms can both also be simplified to $3 + 2(\cos \frac{2\pi}{7} + \cos \frac{4\pi}{7} + \cos \frac{6\pi}{7}) = 2$ . Thus, our answer is simply

$3 \cdot 2 \cdot 2 \cdot 2$ $= \boxed{\mathbf{024}}.$

~mathboy100

2023 AIME II (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 7	Followed by Problem 9
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2023 AIME II Problems/Problem 8

Contents

Problem

Solution 1

Solution 2 (Moduli)

See also