Thread: Problem 31
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Old July 19th, 2007, 07:36 AM
mathisfun1 mathisfun1 is offline
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From law of cosines, each segment connecting two adjacent points on the perimeter have length 2\sin{\frac{\pi}{7}}. Each of the next-longest segments has length 2\sin{\frac{2\pi}{7}}, and a longest segment has length 2\sin{\frac{3\pi}{7}}. There are seven segments of each length, so the product is (8\sin{\frac{\pi}{7}}\sin{\frac{2\pi}{7}}\sin{\frac{3\pi}{7}})^7. Using the well-known fact that \sin{\frac{\pi}{7}}\sin{\frac{2\pi}{7}}\sin{\frac{3\pi}{7}}=\frac{\sqrt 7}{8} Trigonometry Angles--Pi/7 -- from Wolfram MathWorld, our answer is 243\sqrt{7}.