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Cosine cups (Posted on 2020-08-07) Difficulty: 4 of 5
The plot of the equation cos(x+y)=cos(x)+cos(y) looks like a collection of infinitely many identical closed shapes.

Find the area of one of these closed shapes.

No Solution Yet Submitted by Danish Ahmed Khan    
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Solution Solution | Comment 3 of 7 |
I'm going to start with some transforms on the relation cos(x+y) = cos(x) + cos(y).

First translate the relation so that one of the ovals is centered on the origin.
x->x+pi, y->y+pi 
This changes the relation into cos(x+y) = -cos(x) - cos(y).

Then rotate the relation 45 degrees.
x-> (x-y)/sqrt(2), x-> (x+y)/sqrt(2)
This changes the relation into cos(2x/sqrt(2)) = -cos((x-y)/sqrt(2)) - cos((x+y)/sqrt(2))

Then scale the figure by a factor of sqrt(2) on both axes.
x->sqrt(2)*x, y->sqrt(2)*y
This changes the relation into cos(2x) = -cos(x-y) - cos(x+y)
Note this last transformation will have half the area of the original.

Apply basic trig identities to cos(2x) = -cos(x-y) - cos(x+y) eventually simplifies into cos(y) = 0.5*sec(x) - cos(x)

At y=0 then x=arccos((-1+sqrt(3))/2) and at x=0 then y=2*pi/3

Then focus on the first quadrant, which is one fourth of the figure.  Then y = f(x) = arccos(0.5*sec(x) - cos(x))

Then the area of the original figure can be evaluated by calculating 8 times the integral of f(x) from 0 to arccos((-1+sqrt(3))/2).

I could not figure out an antiderivative, so a numerical integration of this gave me a final answer of 15.73736.  This is quite close to the answer Charlie derived by making assumption that the figures were ellipses.

I do want to see what a Monte-Carlo simulation does over the original function inside the square (0,0) to (2pi,2pi).

  Posted by Brian Smith on 2020-08-08 16:51:50
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