The soldiers of Napolean army while at Alps during freezing winter suffered a serious problem as regards to the tin buttons of their uniforms. White metallic tin buttons got converted to grey power. The transformation is related to :

Let $$\alpha ,\,\beta $$ be such that $$\pi < \alpha - \beta < 3\pi $$.
If $$sin{\mkern 1mu} \alpha + \sin \beta = - {{21} \over {65}}$$ and $$\cos \alpha + \cos \beta = - {{27} \over {65}}$$ then the value of $$\cos {{\alpha - \beta } \over 2}$$ :

If $$u = \sqrt {{a^2}{{\cos }^2}\theta + {b^2}{{\sin }^2}\theta } + \sqrt {{a^2}{{\sin }^2}\theta + {b^2}{{\cos }^2}\theta } $$

then the difference between the maximum and minimum values of $${u^2}$$ is given by :

A line makes the same angle $$\theta $$, with each of the $$x$$ and $$z$$ axis.

If the angle $$\beta \,$$, which it makes with y-axis, is such that $$\,{\sin ^2}\beta = 3{\sin ^2}\theta ,$$ then $${\cos ^2}\theta $$ equals :