Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /1239 of 1394

Geometry Difficulty 5.9 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
Let aba \neq b be positive real numbers and m,nm, n be positive integers. An m+nm+n-gon PP has the property that mm sides have length aa and nn sides have length bb. Further suppose that PP can be inscribed in a circle of radius a+ba+b. Compute the number of ordered pairs (m,n)(m, n), with m,n100m, n \leq 100, for which such a polygon PP exists for some distinct values of aa and bb.

Solution

Solution:
Letting x=aa+bx=\frac{a}{a+b}, we have to solve
marcsinx2+narcsin1x2=π m \arcsin \frac{x}{2} + n \arcsin \frac{1-x}{2} = \pi
This is convex in xx, so if it is to have a solution, we must find that the LHS exceeds π\pi at one of the endpoints. Thus max(m,n)7\max (m, n) \geq 7. If min(m,n)5\min (m, n) \leq 5 we can find a solution by the intermediate value theorem. Also if min(m,n)7\min (m, n) \geq 7 then
marcsinx2+narcsin1x214arcsin(1/4)>π m \arcsin \frac{x}{2} + n \arcsin \frac{1-x}{2} \geq 14 \arcsin (1 / 4) > \pi
The inequality arcsin(1/4)>π14\arcsin (1 / 4) > \frac{\pi}{14} can be verified by noting that
sinπ14<π14<3.514=14 \sin \frac{\pi}{14} < \frac{\pi}{14} < \frac{3.5}{14} = \frac{1}{4}
The final case is when min(m,n)=6\min (m, n) = 6. We claim that this doesn't actually work. If we assume that n=6n=6, we may compute the derivative at 0 to be
m2613=m482>0 \frac{m}{2} - 6 \cdot \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}} = \frac{m-\sqrt{48}}{2} > 0
so no solution exists.

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.