<s>[INST] Evaluate $\sec \frac{2\pi}{7}+\sec \frac{4\pi}{7}+\sec \frac{6\pi}{7}$ The problem is as follows:
Find the value of $\textrm{H}$ which belongs to a certain vibration coming from a magnet.
$$H=\sec \frac{2\pi}{7}+\sec \frac{4\pi}{7}+\sec \frac{6\pi}{7}$$
It was easy to spot that each term was related to multiples of two and three of the first angle. So I rewrote that equation like this:
$$H=\sec \frac{2\pi}{7}+\sec \frac{2\times 2\pi}{7}+\sec \frac{3\times 2\pi}{7}$$
One method which I tried was to transform the multiples of each angle into their equivalents as a single one as shown below:
$$\cos^{2}\omega=\frac{1+\cos 2\omega}{2}$$
$$\cos 2\omega= 2 \cos^{2}\omega - 1$$
$$\cos^{3}\omega=\frac{1}{4}\left(3cos\omega+\cos 3\omega \right)$$
$$\cos 3\omega = 4 \cos^{3}\omega - 3 cos\omega$$
Therefore by plugin these expressions into the above equation would become into (provided that secant function is expressed in terms of secant):
$$H=\frac{1}{\cos \frac{2\pi}{7}}+\frac{1}{2\cos^{2}\frac{2\pi}{7}-1}+\frac{1}{4\cos^{3}\frac{2\pi}{7}-3\cos\omega}$$
But from here on it looks convoluted or too algebraic to continue. My second guess was it could be related to sum to product identity but I couldn't find one for the secant.
Does it exist a shortcut or could it be that am I missing something? Can somebody help me to find the answer?
Can this problem be solved without requiring to use Euler's formulas?
 [/INST] Here is the evaluation based on familiar trigonometric identities. Let $\theta = \pi/7$ and express $H$ in terms of cosine functions
$$H=\frac{1}{\cos2\theta} + \frac{1}{\cos4\theta} + \frac{1}{\cos6\theta}$$
or, in the form of common denominator,
$$H =\frac{\cos2\theta + \cos4\theta + \cos6\theta}{\cos2\theta \cos4\theta \cos6\theta}=\frac ND \tag{1}$$
where we used $\cos(x+y)+\cos(x-y)=2\cos x\cos y$ and the relationships $\cos 4\theta = \cos 10\theta$ and $\cos 6\theta = \cos 8\theta$. To compute the denominator, apply  $\sin 2x = 2\sin x \cos x$ to the denominator three times,
$$ D = \frac{\sin 4\theta \cos 4\theta\cos 6\theta}{2\sin 2\theta} = \frac{\sin 8\theta \cos 8\theta }{4\sin 2\theta}= \frac{\sin 16\theta}{8\sin 2\theta} = \frac{1}{8} \tag{2} $$ 
To compute the numerator, write it as
$$ N =\frac{1}{\sin 2\theta} \left({\sin 2\theta\cos2\theta + \sin 2\theta\cos4\theta + \sin 2\theta\cos6\theta} \right)$$
and apply $\sin(x+y)+\sin(x-y)=2\sin x\cos y$ and $\sin 6\theta = -\sin 8\theta$ to get
$$ N = \frac{\sin 4\theta + (\sin 6\theta - \sin 2\theta) + (\sin 8\theta - \sin 4\theta)}{2\sin 2\theta}=-\frac12\tag 3$$
Finally, plugging (2) and (3) into (1), we arrive at
$$H=-4$$
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