Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2013

Geometry Difficulty 7.8 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Saudi Arabia

Find all values of nn for which there exists a convex cyclic non-regular polygon with nn vertices such that the measures of all its internal angles are equal.

Solution

Let P1P2PnP_{1} P_{2} \cdots P_{n} be a convex cyclic non-regular polygon with the measures of all its internal angles equal and let OO be its circumcenter. Because all the angles are equal, all the arcs PiPi+2^\widehat{P_{i} P_{i+2}}, for i=1,,ni=1, \ldots, n, have the same length. Hence, PiOPi+2=4πn\angle P_{i} O P_{i+2} = \frac{4\pi}{n}, for all i=1,,ni=1, \ldots, n, since the polygon is convex.

Figure 1

Let θ=P1OP2\theta = \angle P_{1} O P_{2}. We have
P2i1OP2i=P1OP2+P2OP2iP1OP2i1=P1OP2=θ. \angle P_{2i-1} O P_{2i} = \angle P_{1} O P_{2} + \angle P_{2} O P_{2i} - \angle P_{1} O P_{2i-1} = \angle P_{1} O P_{2} = \theta.
If nn is an odd integer,
θ=PnOP1=n+12PnOP2=n+124πn=2πn=P1OP2mod2π. \theta = \angle P_{n} O P_{1} = \frac{n+1}{2} \angle P_{n} O P_{2} = \frac{n+1}{2} \cdot \frac{4\pi}{n} = \frac{2\pi}{n} = \angle P_{1} O P_{2} \quad \bmod 2\pi.
This means that the polygon is regular, which contradicts the hypothesis.

If nn is even, any value of θ\theta with 0<θ<4πn0 < \theta < \frac{4\pi}{n} and θ2πn\theta \neq \frac{2\pi}{n} defines a unique non-regular such polygon.

Therefore, the possible values of nn are all even positive integers n4n \geq 4.

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