Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2010

Geometry Difficulty 4.6 AIME Prove it Estonia

A regular 20102010-gon is divided into pieces of triangular shape. Find the least possible number of pieces.

Solution

All the interior angles of the 20102010-gon can be built from the inner angles of the triangular pieces. As the sum of the inner angles of the 20102010-gon is 20081802008 \cdot 180^{\circ} and that of every triangle is 180180^{\circ}, there must be at least 20082008 triangles. On the other hand, each convex 20102010-gon can be divided into exactly 20082008 triangles by choosing one vertex and cutting the figure into pieces along the diagonals that start from this vertex.

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