If \(z=x+\mathrm{i}y,\) with \(x,y\) real,
show that
\[
\left|x\right|\cos\alpha+\left|y\right|\sin\alpha\leqslant\left|z\right|\leqslant\left|x\right|+\left|y\right|
\]
for all real \(\alpha.\)
By considering \((5-\mathrm{i})^{4}(1+\mathrm{i}),\) show that
\[
\frac{\pi}{4}=4\tan^{-1}\left(\frac{1}{5}\right)-\tan^{-1}\left(\frac{1}{239}\right).
\]
Prove similarly that
\[
\frac{\pi}{4}=3\tan^{-1}\left(\frac{1}{4}\right)+\tan^{-1}\left(\frac{1}{20}\right)+\tan^{-1}\left(\frac{1}{1985}\right).
\]
Solution:
If \(z=x+iy\) then \(|z|^2 = x^2 + y^2 \leq x^2 + y^2 + 2|x||y| \leq (|x|+|y|)^2\).
The LHS is Cauchy-Schwarz with the vectors \(\begin{pmatrix} |x| \\ |y| \end{pmatrix}\) and \(\begin{pmatrix} \cos \alpha \\ \sin \alpha \end{pmatrix}\), although that's not in the spirit of the question.
Consider \(e^{i \alpha}z = (\cos \alpha x - \sin \alpha y) + i(\sin \alpha x + \cos \alpha y)\) then \(\left | \textrm{Re}(e^{i \alpha} z) \right | \leq |z|\) for all values of \(\alpha\) and in particular we can choose \(\alpha\) to match the signs of the \(x\) and \(y\) to prove the result in question.