<s>[INST] Frequency of a trigonometric function - Where is my mistake? I need to find the frequency of the following trigonometric function.$$y=\sin^4(x)+\cos^4(x)$$
The "answers" section says the answer is: $$F_y=\frac{\pi}{2}$$
This is what i did:
Finding $\sin(x)^4$ frequency (I'll call it F1):
$$\cos(2x)=1-\sin^2(x)$$
$$\sin^2(x)=\frac{1-\cos(2x)}{2}$$
$$\sin^4(x)=\frac{\cos^2(2x)-2\cos(2x)+1}{4}=\frac{cos^2(2x)+4\sin^2(x)-1}{4}$$
Finding $\cos(2x)^2$ frequency:
$$\cos(4x)=2\cos^2(2x)-1$$
$$\cos^2(2x)=\frac{\cos(4x)+1}{2}$$
$$f_1=\frac{2\pi}{4}=\frac{\pi}{2}$$
Finding $\sin(x)^2$ frequency:
$$\cos(2x)=1-2\sin^2(x)$$
$$\sin^2(x)=\frac{1-\cos(2x)}{2}$$
$$f_2=\frac{2\pi}{2}=\pi$$
$$F_1: \frac{f_1}{f_2}=\frac{\frac{\pi}{2}}{\pi}=\frac{1}{2}$$
$$F_1=\frac{\pi}{2}\times2=\pi$$
Finding $cos(x)^4$ frequency (I'll call it F2):
$$\cos(2x)=2\cos^2(x)-1$$
$$\cos^2(x)=\frac{\cos(2x)+1}{2}$$
$$\cos^4(x)=\frac{\cos^2(2x)+2\cos(2x)+1}{4}$$
Finding $\cos(2x)$ frequency (we already have $\cos(2x)^2$ frequency - f1):
$$f_3=\frac{2\pi}{2}=\pi$$
$$F_2: \frac{f_1}{f_3}=\frac{\frac{\pi}{2}}{\pi}=\frac{1}{2}$$
$$F_2=\frac{\pi}{2}\times2=\pi$$
Finding $y$'s frequency:
$$F_y: \frac{F_1}{F_2}=\frac{\pi}{\pi}=\frac{1}{1}$$
$$F_y=\pi\times1=\pi$$
 [/INST] I won't pretend that I would have thought of this without seeing the answer but we can look at the problem geometrically. This is more of a nice illustration than a genuine 'proof by pictures'.
We know firstly that the curve $x^4+y^4=a$ is symmetric about the $x$- and $y$-axes:

Suppose that $f(\theta)=\sin^4\theta+\cos^4\theta=a$ for some $a$ in the range of $f$. Now we know that $\sin^2\theta+\cos^2\theta$ is equal to one. Hence we can place the point $(\cos\theta,\sin\theta)$ on the intersection of the unit circle and the curve $x^4+y^4=a$ as shown:

Now as the curve has $\pi/2$-rotation symmetry, the point $(\cos(\theta+\pi/2),\sin(\theta+\pi/2))$ is also on the curve $x^4+y^4=a$ and we are done.
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