What are the integer solutions to $\cos(\sqrt{n^2-1}) = \frac{1}{n}$?

110 Views Asked by At

$$\cos(\sqrt{n^2-1}) = \frac{1}{n}$$ I was wondering if there existed integer solutions to to this equation apart from n=1. I've thought that there are probably no more solutions, because RHS is rational and I believe that LHS is not rational in general. I've found theorems about the output of the cosine when the argument is rational, but not for when it is irrational. (Niven's theorem). How could this be solved?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On BEST ANSWER

It is a consequence of Baker's Theorem, for example as listed here, that if the output of a trigonometric function is algebraic (and so rational numbers like $1/n$ count) then the input is either rational or transcendental. Since $\sqrt{n^2-1}$ is not rational but is algebraic for $n$ apart from 1, there are no other integer solutions to your equation.