Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /237 of 462

Geometry Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it Ireland

Determine the largest integer which is the side length of a square tile which can be used to completely tile a rectangle that is inscribed in a circle of radius 7575.

Solution

Let xx be the side length of the square tile. If the rectangle is completely tiled with such square tiles, there exist integers a,ba, b such that the side lengths of the rectangle are axax and bxbx. We let r=75r = 75 denote the radius of the circle.

Figure 1

The diagonals of the rectangle are diameters of the circle and so their length is 2r2r. Applying Pythagoras to the right angled triangle obtained by cutting the rectangle along one of its diagonals, we obtain
(2r)2=x2(a2+b2). (2r)^2 = x^2(a^2 + b^2).
As x,r,a,bx, r, a, b are integers, this implies that xx is a factor of 2r2r and so c=2r/xc = 2r/x is an integer that satisfies c2=a2+b2c^2 = a^2 + b^2. Because we are to find the largest possible x=2r/cx = 2r/c, we are interested in the smallest cc that divides 2r2r and which appears as the hypotenuse of a right angled triangle with integer side lengths.

The positive divisors of 2r=150=23522r = 150 = 2 \cdot 3 \cdot 5^2 are 1,2,3,5,6,10,15,25,30,50,751, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 15, 25, 30, 50, 75 and 150150. Because 12+12=21^2 + 1^2 = 2, 12+22=51^2 + 2^2 = 5, 22+22=82^2 + 2^2 = 8 and all other sums of two positive squares are greater than 99, we confirm that none of the numbers 12=11^2 = 1, 22=42^2 = 4 and 32=93^2 = 9 is the sum of two non-zero squares. This rules out 1,2,31, 2, 3 for cc. Therefore, cc is at least 55.

When c=5c = 5, we can use a=3a = 3 and b=4b = 4 to get c2=a2+b2c^2 = a^2 + b^2. In this case we obtain x=150/5=30x = 150/5 = 30. The side lengths of the rectangle are then equal to ax=90ax = 90 and bx=120bx = 120. Such a rectangle is indeed inscribed into a circle of radius r=75r = 75, because 1502=902+1202150^2 = 90^2 + 120^2 which is just 30230^2 times 52=32+425^2 = 3^2 + 4^2.

Figure 2

Therefore, the largest possible integer side length of a square tile that can be used to completely tile a rectangle that is inscribed in a circle of radius 7575 is equal to 3030.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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