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Geometry Difficulty 5.9 AIME, harder Prove it Croatia

A circle of length 6N6N is divided by 3N3N marked points into 3N3N arcs: NN arcs of length 11, NN arcs of length 22 and NN arcs of length 33.
Prove that among the marked points there exist two which are endpoints of some diameter of the circle. (V. Prasolov, Problems in plane and solid geometry)

Solution

Let 3N3N marked points be called outer points. We divide each of NN arcs of length 22 into two arcs of equal length using one point, and each of NN arcs of length 33 into three arcs of equal length using two points. Let those 3N3N new points be called inner points. There are 6N6N outer and inner points in total and they divide the circle into 6N6N arcs of length 11. Since 6N6N is odd, we conclude that diametrically opposite to each of those 6N6N points there lies another of those 6N6N points. From the definition of the inner points we see that there can not exist 33 consecutive inner points.

Let us assume the opposite, i.e. that no two of 3N3N outer points are diametrically opposite. That means that diametrically opposite to every outer point lies an inner point. Since there is an equal number of outer and inner points, we conclude that diametrically opposite to every inner point lies an outer point.

The points AA and BB are outer points so the points CC and DD are inner points. Due to the fact that there are no 33 consecutive inner points, we conclude that the points PP and QQ are outer. Hence, across the arc AB^\widehat{AB} of length 11 lies the arc PQ^\widehat{PQ} of length 33. Since there is an equal number of arcs of lengths 11 and 33, we get that across every arc of length 33 lies an arc of length 11.

Figure 1

For i{1,2,3}i \in \{1, 2, 3\}, let LiL_i be the number of arcs of length ii inside of the shorter arc AP^\widehat{AP} and let DiD_i be the number of arcs of length ii inside of the shorter arc BQ^\widehat{BQ}. Length of the arc AP^\widehat{AP} is 3N23N - 2 so we have:
L1+2L2+3L3=3N2.() L_1 + 2L_2 + 3L_3 = 3N - 2. \quad (*)
Since across every arc of length 33 lies an arc of length 11 and vice versa, we have:
D1=L3.() D_1 = L_3. \quad (**)
There are exactly NN arcs of length 11 so we have:
L1+D1=N1, L_1 + D_1 = N - 1,
which using ()(**) leads to:
L1+L3=N1.() L_1 + L_3 = N - 1. \quad (***)
Subtracting the equality ()(***) from the inequality ()(*) we get:
2L2+2L3=2N1, 2L_2 + 2L_3 = 2N - 1,
which is impossible, because the left-hand side of the equality is an even number, but the right-hand side is an odd number. Hence, we conclude that our assumption is wrong, so there exist two diametrically opposite outer points.

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