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Convert z = 12cos12° + 12isin12° from polar form to rectangular form.

User Naka
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1 Answer

4 votes

But z is already given in rectangular form... A complex number in rectangular form looks like
a+bi, where
a,b\in\mathbb{R}.

Perhaps you're supposed to write cos(12º) and sin(12º) in non-trigonometric form? In that case, we want exact forms of these numbers.

Note that 12º = 60º/5. Consider the identities


\cos(5t)=\cos^5t-10\sin^2t\cos^3t+5\sin^4t\cos t


\implies\cos(5t)=16\cos^5t-20\cos^3t+5\cos t


\sin(5t)=\sin^5t-10\sin^3t\cos^2t+5\sin t\cos^4t


\implies\sin(5t)=16\sin^5t-20\sin^3t+5\sin t

(both of which follow from DeMoivre's theorem)

We have
\sin(60^\circ)=\frac{\sqrt3}2 and
\cos(60^\circ)=\frac12, so we get


\cos(12^\circ)=\frac{\sqrt5-1+√(30+6\sqrt5)}8


\sin(12^\circ)=\frac{\sqrt{7-\sqrt5-√(30-6\sqrt5)}}4

User Praveen Ramalingam
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