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The question that is getting me confused is: if $y = (\sin^{-1} x)^2$, prove that $(1-x^2) (y_{n+2}) - (2n+1)x y_{n+1} + n^2 y_{n} = 0$.

Could you please explain the problem solving tricks used for such questions so that I can tackle similar questions. Thank you in advance.

Bipul Adh
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This is closest to an answer I can get for the current form of the question. Perhaps someone else will be able to help you more.

If I did not make a mistake below, it seems that the equality you want to prove is not true.


First the easy part. Let us have a look at the equation $$(1-x^2) y_{n+2} - (2n+1)x y_{n+1} - n^2 y_{n} = 0$$ (Notice that I have changed sign in one place; I have here $-n^2y_n$ instead of $+n^2y_n$.)

You did not say that in your post, but I assume that $y_n$ stands for $n$-th derivative of the given function.

A natural approach to prove things like this might be induction. Let us ignore the case $n=0$ at the moment.

The inductive step is relatively easy.

If you already know that $$(1-x^2) y_{n+2} - (2n+1)x y_{n+1} - n^2 y_{n} = 0$$ then simply by differentiating both sides you get $$ \begin{align} (1-x^2) y_{n+3} - 2xy_{n+2} - (2n+1)x y_{n+2} - (2n+1) y_{n+1} - n^2 y_{n+1} &= 0\\ (1-x^2) y_{n+3} - (2n+3)x y_{n+2} - (n^2+2n+1) y_{n+1} &= 0\\ (1-x^2) y_{n+3} - (2n+3)x y_{n+2} - (n+1)^2 y_{n+1} &= 0 \end{align} $$

So now it remains to check whether this is true for $n=0$. Then the proof would be finished.

I.e., we want to check whether we have $$(1-x^2)y_2-xy_1=0,$$ which is equivalent to $xy_1=(1-x^2)y_2$. (Basically, this should be the easy part, we should just differentiate twice and plug in.)


One problem with your question is that there are two common interpretations of $\sin^{-1}(x)$. It can mean either $\frac1{\sin x}$ or $\arcsin x$ (i.e., the inverse function to sine).

This is well-known notational problem, which occasionally might cause confusion, see here.

But let us try both possibilities.


$$y_0=\arcsin^2 x$$

$$y_1=y_0'=2\cdot\frac{\arcsin x}{\sqrt{1-x^2}}$$

$$y_2=y_1'=2\cdot\frac{1-\frac{\arcsin x}{\sqrt{1-x^2}}}{1-x^2}$$

You can check the results on WolframAlpha: the first derivative, the second derivative

We see that the equation $xy_1=(1-x^2)y_2$ is not fulfilled in this case.


$$y_0=\frac1{\sin^2x}$$

$$y_1=y_0'=-\frac{2\sin x\cos x}{\sin^4x} = -\frac{2\cos x}{\sin^3x}$$

$$y_2=y_1' = \frac{2\sin^4x+6\cos^2x\sin^2x}{\sin^6x} = \frac{2\sin^2x+6\cos^2x}{\sin^4x}$$

If you wish, you can again check the results on WA or elsewhere.

The equality $xy_1=(1-x^2)y_2$ is not fulfilled in this case, either.


The fact that I had to change the sign for inductive step and the recursive formula we want to prove is not fulfilled for $n=0$ leads me to the question: What is the origin of this exercise? Are you sure you have copied it correctly?

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    There was a question asking to show that by repeated differentiating $(1-x^2)y^" –xy'- m^2y$ you get $(1-x^2) y^{(n+2)}-(2n+1) xy^{(n+1)} – (n^2+m^2) y^{(n)}$. It is now deleted, here is link for users which can see deleted posts. This is somewhat similar to the inductive step in my post. – Martin Sleziak Sep 11 '15 at 12:01
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    The expansion of $\arcsin^2x$ into power series is given in this post. Hence it also gives the value of $n$-th derivative of $\arcsin^2x$ at $x=0$. (But this question is asking about arbitrary $x$.) – Martin Sleziak Sep 11 '15 at 13:10