October 2021 Paper 3 Q2

OCR ACurrent spec6 marksBinomial ExpansionTrigonometry

2

Triangle ABC with angle 60 degrees at A; side AB labelled (4 + h) cm and side AC labelled (4 − h) cm

The diagram shows triangle \(ABC\) in which angle \(A\) is \(60^\circ\) and the lengths of \(AB\) and \(AC\) are \((4 + h)\,\mathrm{cm}\) and \((4 - h)\,\mathrm{cm}\) respectively.

(a) Show that the length of \(BC\) is \(p\,\mathrm{cm}\) where \[p^2 = 16 + 3h^2.\] [2]
(b) Hence show that, when \(h\) is small, \(p \approx 4 + \lambda h^2 + \mu h^4\), where \(\lambda\) and \(\mu\) are rational numbers whose values are to be determined. [4]