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Geometry Difficulty 7.0 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it Iran

AA puts 55 points on the plane such that no three of them are collinear. BB adds a sixth point that is not collinear with any two of the former points. AA wants to eventually construct two triangles from the six points such that one can be placed inside another. Can AA put the 55 points in such a manner so that he would always be able to construct the desired triangles? (We say that triangle 1\triangle_1 can be placed inside triangle 2\triangle_2 if 1\triangle_1 is congruent to a triangle that is located completely inside 2\triangle_2.)

Solution

Firstly, we present an obvious lemma.
Lemma 1. If for two triangles ABCABC and ABCA'B'C', we have ABABAB \le A'B', ACACAC \le A'C' and BACBAC\angle BAC \le B'A'C', then ABCABC can be placed into ABCA'B'C'.

Let XYZXYZ be an equilateral triangle with center OO. We denote the radius of circumcircle of this triangle and the length of its altitudes by RR and hh, respectively (Clearly, h=32Rh = \frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}R). Let PP be a point close to OO such that OP<hR2OP < \frac{h-R}{2} and angles OXP\angle OXP, OYP\angle OYP and OZP\angle OZP are all in the interval (0,30)(0, 30^\circ). We claim that if AA puts the points X,Y,Z,OX, Y, Z, O and PP; he would be able to construct the desired triangles.

Now we go to some cases, according to the place of sixth point, say QQ.

* If QQ lies inside the triangle, then OQPOQP is located completely inside XYZXYZ.

* If QQ lies inside the circumcircle of XYZXYZ but outside of the triangle, we have
QP<QO+OPR+OP<h<XY,QOR<h<XZ QP < QO + OP \le R + OP < h < XY, \quad QO \le R < h < XZ
On the other hand, since QQ is outside of XYZXYZ, OQhR>2OPOQ \ge h - R > 2OP and QP>OQOP>OPQP > OQ - OP > OP. So OPOP is the shortest side of triangle OPQOPQ. Therefore, OQP60\angle OQP \le 60^\circ. Now since QP<XYQP < XY, QO<XZQO < XZ and OQP60=YXZ\angle OQP \le 60^\circ = \angle YXZ, according to the lemma, triangle OQPOQP can be placed inside XYZXYZ.

* If QQ lies outside the circumcircle of XYZXYZ, triangles QXYQXY, QYZQYZ and QZXQZX cover the triangle XYZXYZ. So one of them, for example QYZQYZ contains OO. Therefore, triangle OYZOYZ is located inside QYZQYZ. On the other hand, since OPXOPX can be placed into OYZOYZ (PP is in one of congruent triangles OXYOXY, OYZOYZ or OZXOZX), we obtain that OPXOPX can be placed into QYZQYZ.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.