Problem:
Prove that amongst any 9 vertices of a regular 26-gon there are three which are vertices of an isosceles triangle. Do there exist 8 vertices such that no three of them are vertices of an isosceles triangle?
Problem:
Prove that amongst any 9 vertices of a regular 26-gon there are three which are vertices of an isosceles triangle. Do there exist 8 vertices such that no three of them are vertices of an isosceles triangle?
Solution:
LEMMA. For any five vertices of a regular 13-gon there exists an isosceles triangle with vertices amongst these points.
Proof of the lemma. Let the five points form a convex pentagon . We first consider the case when there exist two pairs of parallel lines determined by some vertices of . We have the following possibilities:
1) There are two pairs of parallel sides of —for example and . Then we have or , i.e. . Hence and therefore the triangle is isosceles.
2) There are two diagonals that are parallel respectively to two sides of . Without loss of generality we may assume that . If we conclude as in 1) that . If , then . The cases and are similar.
3) There is a diagonal of that is parallel to its side and a pair of parallel sides of . Without loss of generality we may assume that . Since is not parallel to (otherwise is a rectangle with vertices amongst the vertices of a regular 13-gon) we may assume that . Then .
Let us now assume that there exists at most one pair of parallel lines determined by some vertices of . Since the vertices of determine 10 lines, at least 9 of them are not parallel to each other. Consider the 9 pairs of vertices determining such lines. Every such pair is a base of an isosceles triangle whose third vertex is a vertex of the 13-gon. Note that all such third vertices are different because no two of the bases are parallel. Hence at least one of these 9 vertices is a vertex of and this proves the existence of the desired isosceles triangle. This completes the proof of the lemma.
The regular 26-gon is formed by two disjoint regular 13-gons. If we choose 9 of its vertices then at least 5 of them are vertices of one of these 13-gons. Then it follows from the lemma that there exists an isosceles triangle with vertices amongst the vertices of this 13-gon.
Finally, note that there exist 8 vertices such that no three of them form an isosceles triangle. For example, if the vertices are labelled from 1 to 26, then we choose the vertices and .