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Geometry Difficulty 6.5 National Olympiad Prove it Hong Kong

Find all integers n3n \ge 3 with the following property: there exist nn distinct points on the plane such that each point is the circumcentre of a triangle formed by 3 of the points.

Solution

The answer is any integer n6n \ge 6.
When n=6n = 6, consider two equilateral triangles of side lengths 1 having parallel sides and the same orientation such that each pair of corresponding vertices is at a distance 1 apart. It is clear that each point has a distance 1 to three other points, so that it is the circumcentre of some triangle.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Assume there are nn distinct points such that each point is the circumcentre of some triangle. Consider the convex hull of these nn points. Let ABAB be a side of the convex hull. We may assume there is no point on the segment ABAB. Let CC be a point such that ACB\angle ACB is the largest possible. Note that ACB>0\angle ACB > 0^\circ since it is not possible that all nn points are collinear.
If ACB90\angle ACB \ge 90^\circ, then the circumcentre OO of ABC\triangle ABC lies on ABAB or on a different side to the line ABAB as CC. In both cases, OO is distinct from all these points. We can take OO as the (n+1)(n+1)st point so that each point is the circumcentre of some triangle.

If ACB<90\angle ACB < 90^\circ, then the circumcentre OO of ABC\triangle ABC satisfies
AOB=2ACB>ACB. \angle AOB = 2\angle ACB > \angle ACB.
From the choice of CC, the point OO must be distinct from all the points. Again, we can take OO as the (n+1)(n+1)st point.
By induction, we find that the property is satisfied for any n6n \ge 6.
It remains to show that n=5n = 5 does not satisfy the property. If this is true, then both n=3n = 3 and n=4n = 4 do not satisfy the property from the above inductive step.
Let the points be A,B,C,D,EA, B, C, D, E. WLOG assume AA is the circumcentre of BCD\triangle BCD. One of the following must occur.
* If BB is the circumcentre of ACD\triangle ACD, then AC=AD=AB=BC=BDAC = AD = AB = BC = BD. So both ABC\triangle ABC and ABD\triangle ABD are equilateral triangles. Note that at least one of A,BA, B must lie on a circle with centre CC that contains 3 points. So EE lies on the circle with centre CC that passes through AA and BB. Similarly, EE lies on the circle with centre DD that passes through AA and BB. This is a contradiction since the two circles only meet at AA and BB.

Figure 3

* If BB is the circumcentre of ACE\triangle ACE, then AC=AD=AB=BC=BEAC = AD = AB = BC = BE. So ABC\triangle ABC is an equilateral triangle. Thus, there must be 3 points lying on the circle with centre CC that passes through AA and BB. In either case CA=CB=CDCA = CB = CD or CA=CB=CECA = CB = CE, we get the same configuration as above and hence it is a contradiction.
* If BB is the circumcentre of CDE\triangle CDE, we may also assume CC is the circum-centre of BDE\triangle BDE since otherwise it is included in the above two cases by symmetry. Then this is exactly the same as the first case. Again, this yields a contradiction.
Therefore, n=5n = 5 does not satisfy the property. The result then follows.

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