Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 8.7 Shortlist Prove it IMO

Let nn be an odd positive integer. In the Cartesian plane, a cyclic polygon PP with area SS is chosen. All its vertices have integral coordinates, and the squares of its side lengths are all divisible by nn. Prove that 2S2 S is an integer divisible by nn.

Solution

Let P=A1A2AkP = A_{1} A_{2} \ldots A_{k} and let Ak+i=AiA_{k+i} = A_{i} for i1i \geqslant 1. By the Shoelace Formula, the area of any convex polygon with integral coordinates is half an integer. Therefore, 2S2 S is an integer. We shall prove by induction on k3k \geqslant 3 that 2S2 S is divisible by nn. Clearly, it suffices to consider n=ptn = p^{t} where pp is an odd prime and t1t \geqslant 1.

For the base case k=3k = 3, let the side lengths of PP be na\sqrt{n a}, nb\sqrt{n b}, nc\sqrt{n c} where a,b,ca, b, c are positive integers. By Heron's Formula,
16S2=n2(2ab+2bc+2caa2b2c2). 16 S^{2} = n^{2} \left(2 a b + 2 b c + 2 c a - a^{2} - b^{2} - c^{2}\right).
This shows 16S216 S^{2} is divisible by n2n^{2}. Since nn is odd, 2S2 S is divisible by nn.

Assume k4k \geqslant 4. If the square of length of one of the diagonals is divisible by nn, then that diagonal divides PP into two smaller polygons, to which the induction hypothesis applies. Hence we may assume that none of the squares of diagonal lengths is divisible by nn. As usual, we denote by νp(r)\nu_{p}(r) the exponent of pp in the prime decomposition of rr. We claim the following.

- Claim. νp(A1Am2)>νp(A1Am+12)\nu_{p}\left(A_{1} A_{m}^{2}\right) > \nu_{p}\left(A_{1} A_{m+1}^{2}\right) for 2mk12 \leqslant m \leqslant k-1.

Proof. The case m=2m = 2 is obvious since νp(A1A22)pt>νp(A1A32)\nu_{p}\left(A_{1} A_{2}^{2}\right) \geqslant p^{t} > \nu_{p}\left(A_{1} A_{3}^{2}\right) by the condition and the above assumption.

Suppose νp(A1A22)>νp(A1A32)>>νp(A1Am2)\nu_{p}\left(A_{1} A_{2}^{2}\right) > \nu_{p}\left(A_{1} A_{3}^{2}\right) > \cdots > \nu_{p}\left(A_{1} A_{m}^{2}\right) where 3mk13 \leqslant m \leqslant k-1. For the induction step, we apply Ptolemy's Theorem to the cyclic quadrilateral A1Am1AmAm+1A_{1} A_{m-1} A_{m} A_{m+1} to get
A1Am+1×Am1Am+A1Am1×AmAm+1=A1Am×Am1Am+1 A_{1} A_{m+1} \times A_{m-1} A_{m} + A_{1} A_{m-1} \times A_{m} A_{m+1} = A_{1} A_{m} \times A_{m-1} A_{m+1}
which can be rewritten as
A1Am+12×Am1Am2=A1Am12×AmAm+12+A1Am2×Am1Am+122A1Am1×AmAm+1×A1Am×Am1Am+1 \begin{align*} A_{1} A_{m+1}^{2} \times A_{m-1} A_{m}^{2} = & A_{1} A_{m-1}^{2} \times A_{m} A_{m+1}^{2} + A_{1} A_{m}^{2} \times A_{m-1} A_{m+1}^{2} \\ & - 2 A_{1} A_{m-1} \times A_{m} A_{m+1} \times A_{1} A_{m} \times A_{m-1} A_{m+1} \tag{1} \end{align*}
From this, 2A1Am1×AmAm+1×A1Am×Am1Am+12 A_{1} A_{m-1} \times A_{m} A_{m+1} \times A_{1} A_{m} \times A_{m-1} A_{m+1} is an integer. We consider the component of pp of each term in (1). By the inductive hypothesis, we have νp(A1Am12)>νp(A1Am2)\nu_{p}\left(A_{1} A_{m-1}^{2}\right) > \nu_{p}\left(A_{1} A_{m}^{2}\right). Also, we have νp(AmAm+12)pt>νp(Am1Am+12)\nu_{p}\left(A_{m} A_{m+1}^{2}\right) \geqslant p^{t} > \nu_{p}\left(A_{m-1} A_{m+1}^{2}\right). These give
νp(A1Am12×AmAm+12)>νp(A1Am2×Am1Am+12) \begin{equation*} \nu_{p}\left(A_{1} A_{m-1}^{2} \times A_{m} A_{m+1}^{2}\right) > \nu_{p}\left(A_{1} A_{m}^{2} \times A_{m-1} A_{m+1}^{2}\right) \tag{2} \end{equation*}
Next, we have νp(4A1Am12×AmAm+12×A1Am2×Am1Am+12)=νp(A1Am12×AmAm+12)+νp(A1Am2×Am1Am+12)>2νp(A1Am2×Am1Am+12)\nu_{p}\left(4 A_{1} A_{m-1}^{2} \times A_{m} A_{m+1}^{2} \times A_{1} A_{m}^{2} \times A_{m-1} A_{m+1}^{2}\right) = \nu_{p}\left(A_{1} A_{m-1}^{2} \times A_{m} A_{m+1}^{2}\right) + \nu_{p}\left(A_{1} A_{m}^{2} \times A_{m-1} A_{m+1}^{2}\right) > 2 \nu_{p}\left(A_{1} A_{m}^{2} \times A_{m-1} A_{m+1}^{2}\right) from (2). This implies
νp(2A1Am1×AmAm+1×A1Am×Am1Am+1)>νp(A1Am2×Am1Am+12) \begin{equation*} \nu_{p}\left(2 A_{1} A_{m-1} \times A_{m} A_{m+1} \times A_{1} A_{m} \times A_{m-1} A_{m+1}\right) > \nu_{p}\left(A_{1} A_{m}^{2} \times A_{m-1} A_{m+1}^{2}\right) \tag{3} \end{equation*}
Combining (1), (2) and (3), we conclude that
νp(A1Am+12×Am1Am2)=νp(A1Am2×Am1Am+12) \nu_{p}\left(A_{1} A_{m+1}^{2} \times A_{m-1} A_{m}^{2}\right) = \nu_{p}\left(A_{1} A_{m}^{2} \times A_{m-1} A_{m+1}^{2}\right)
By νp(Am1Am2)pt>νp(Am1Am+12)\nu_{p}\left(A_{m-1} A_{m}^{2}\right) \geqslant p^{t} > \nu_{p}\left(A_{m-1} A_{m+1}^{2}\right), we get νp(A1Am+12)<νp(A1Am2)\nu_{p}\left(A_{1} A_{m+1}^{2}\right) < \nu_{p}\left(A_{1} A_{m}^{2}\right). The Claim follows by induction.

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