We have the following identities:
$\sin(\frac{\pi}{1})=0$
$\sin(\frac{\pi}{2})=1$
$\sin(\frac{\pi}{3})=\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}$
$\sin(\frac{\pi}{4})=\sqrt{\frac{1}{2}}$
Lets start with a definition.
Rules for construction :
We start with the set of positive integers and we extend with a finite set $A$ of algebraic positive real numbers $a_i$, the set may even be empty.
further these rules apply;
- if $x$ is in the set then so is $-x$.
- if $x,y$ are in the set $x+y$ is in the set.
- if $x,y$ are in the set then $xy$ is in the set.
- if $x>0$ is in the set than the positive real $n$ th root is in the set.
- if $x$ is in the set and $n$ is a strict positive integer then $\frac{x}{n}$ is in the set.
so for instance
$\sqrt{\frac{2}{5} + 3 \sqrt7-\frac{1}{13}}$
is in the set and so is $2^{1/3}$ while
$\sqrt{\frac{2}{5} - 3 \sqrt7-\frac{1}{13}}$
is not ( rule 4)
$1/\sqrt2$ is in the set in a sense , because it is equal to $\sqrt{1/2}$ but it is not allowed to write it like that, because it does not use the laws for construction.
$\sin(\pi/17)$ can be expressed or constructed in that way, but again it not an acceptable form as such.
So what algebraic numbers can be written like that ?
this is close to galois theory. ( expressions by radicals as galois theory usually studies also always divisions and roots of non-positive reals or complex numbers )
But that is not the main question.
Notice I did not mention any elements of A yet.
What I want is to know if a given number can be given constructed with a given set $A$ and the construction rules.
In particular this :
Let $p$ be a given odd prime but not a fermat prime.
Let $q_i$ be odd primes but not fermat primes all smaller than $p$.
Let the set A contain only $\sin(\pi/q_1),\sin(\pi/q_2),...$.
When can we construct the number
$$\sin(\frac{\pi}{p})=..$$
for a given value $p$ ?
see also :
https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/3994452/closed-form-of-cos-frac-pi7
which are related or similar but different.
edit
comment :
In my construction I did not allow divisions apart from by integers.
A related question is if we also allow division
- if $x,y$ are in the set and both nonzero than $x/y$ is in the set.
This makes a nice follow-up question.
However I did not make this the main question because I believe this is not more powerful. In other words if $\sin(\frac{\pi}{p})$ cannot be expressed without rule 6 than I do not believe it can be expressed including rule 6.
This is because making a denominator rootfree is usually possible.
On the other hand if the denominator contains a sine that does not reduce to root form , it usually is not removable from the denominator.
For those 2 reasons I believe what I believe.
More insight in it would be welcome ofcourse.