Quintic Equation

factoringpolynomialsquintics

I got problem written as this,

For solvable quintic
$$
\frac{32}{7} \cos^5 x – \frac{32}{7}\cos^3 x-\frac47 \cos^2 x + \frac{22}{7}\cos x – 1 = 0,
$$

show that one of the cosine function is $\cos x = 1/2$.

this is a 5th degree polynomials, also called by quintic equation. I tried to read explanation in wiki but can't quite find the answer. Can someone help me with this?

Best Answer

Let $2\cos{x}=t$.

Thus, we need to solve $$t^5-4t^3-t^2+11t-7=0$$ or $$t^5-t^4+t^4-t^3-3t^3+3t^2-4t^2+4t+7t-7=0$$ or $$(t-1)(t^4+t^3-3t^2-4t+7)=0$$ and since by AM-GM $$t^4+t^3-3t^2-4t+7=(t^4+3-4t)+\left(2\cdot\frac{t^3}{2}+4-3t^2\right)\geq$$ $$\geq4\sqrt[4]{t^4\cdot1^3}-4t+3\sqrt[3]{\left(\frac{t^3}{2}\right)^2\cdot4}-3t^2=4(|t|-t)>0,$$ we obtain $t=1$ and $\cos{x}=\frac{1}{2}$ only.