Question: Compute the value of the product $$\prod^{100}_{n=1} \left(5-4 \cos \left(\frac{\pi (2n-1)}{100} \right) \right)$$
I began by considering $$a_k=\prod^{k}_{n=1} \left(5-4 \cos \left(\frac{\pi (2n-1)}{k} \right) \right)$$ for smaller values of $k$.
- $a_1=3$
- $a_2=25$
- $a_3=81$
- $a_4=289$
- $a_5=1089$
This led me to conjecture that $a_k=(2^k+1)^2$. However, I am unsure how to go about proving this.
I first began by rewriting $$a_k=4^k \cdot \prod^{k}_{n=1} \left(\frac{5}{4}-\cos \left(\frac{\pi (2n-1)}{k} \right) \right)$$
I then thought of interpreting this as $P(5/4)$, where $$P(x)=\prod^{k}_{n=1} \left(x-\cos \left(\frac{\pi (2n-1)}{k} \right) \right)$$
Initially, I thought this looked similar to De Moivre's theorem, since $P(x)$ is equal to the product of $\Re \left(x-e^{\frac{i\pi(2n-1)}{k}} \right)$. However, when multiplying imaginary terms by each other, the result is real, and they don't seem to cancel nicely.