This is a nice integral from the $13^{th}$ annual Stanford Mathematics tournament.
Compute the integral
$$\int_0^{\pi} \ln \left(1-2a \cos(x) + a^2\right) dx$$
Solution:
Moor xu has presented $5$ different solutions here. We look at another way to compute the integral.
Let $$I(a) = \displaystyle \int_0^{\pi} \ln \left(1-2a \cos(x) + a^2\right) dx$$ Some preliminary results on $I(a)$. Note that we have $$I(a) = \underbrace{\displaystyle \int_0^{\pi} \ln \left(1+2a \cos(x) + a^2\right) dx}_{\spadesuit} = \overbrace{\dfrac12 \displaystyle \int_0^{2\pi} \ln \left(1-2a \cos(x) + a^2\right) dx}^{\clubsuit}$$ $(\spadesuit)$ can be seen by replacing $x \mapsto \pi-x$ and $(\clubsuit)$ can be obtained by splitting the integral from $0$ to $\pi$ and $\pi$ to $2 \pi$ and replacing $x$ by $\pi+x$ in the second integral.
Now let us move on to our computation of $I(a)$.
\begin{align}
I(a^2) & = \int_0^{\pi} \ln \left(1-2a^2 \cos(x) + a^4\right) dx = \dfrac12 \int_0^{2\pi} \ln \left(1-2a^2 \cos(x) + a^4\right) dx\\
& = \dfrac12 \int_0^{2\pi} \ln \left((1+a^2)^2-2a^2(1+ \cos(x))\right) dx = \dfrac12 \int_0^{2\pi} \ln \left((1+a^2)^2-4a^2 \cos^2(x/2)\right) dx\\
& = \dfrac12 \int_0^{2\pi} \ln \left(1+a^2-2a \cos(x/2)\right) dx + \dfrac12 \int_0^{2\pi} \ln \left(1+a^2+2a \cos(x/2)\right) dx
\end{align}
Now replace $x/2=t$ in both integrals above to get
\begin{align}
I(a^2) & = \int_0^{\pi} \ln \left(1+a^2-2a \cos(t)\right) dt + \int_0^{\pi} \ln \left(1+a^2+2a \cos(t)\right) dt = 2I(a)
\end{align}
Now for $a \in [0,1)$, this gives us that $I(a) = 0$. This is because we have $I(0) = 0$ and $$I(a) = \dfrac{I(a^{2^n})}{2^n}$$ Now let $n \to \infty$ and use continuity to conclude that $I(a) = 0$ for $a \in [0,1)$. Now lets get back to our original problem. Consider $a>1$. We have
\begin{align*}
I(1/a) & = \int_0^{\pi} \ln \left(1-\dfrac2{a} \cos(x) + \dfrac1{a^2}\right)dx\\
& = \int_0^{\pi} \ln(1-2a \cos(x) + a^2) dx - 2\int_0^{\pi} \ln(a)dx\\
& = I(a) - 2 \pi \ln(a)\\
& = 0 \tag{Since $1/a < 1$, we have $I(1/a) = 0$}
\end{align*}
Hence, we get that
$$I(a) = \begin{cases} 2 \pi \ln(a) & a \geq 1 \\ 0 & a \in [0,1] \end{cases}$$
