Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.4 National Olympiad Prove it Estonia

Call a convex polygon on a plane correct if for its every side there exists a unique vertex of the polygon that lies farther from that side than any other vertex of the polygon. Call the perpendicular drawn from the vertex farthest from side XYXY to side XYXY an altitude of the correct polygon. Find all natural numbers nn for which there exists a correct nn-gon whose all nn altitudes meet in one point.

Solution

Let one of the vertices be O(0,0)O(0,0) and let the other vertices A1,,An1A_1, \dots, A_{n-1} lie on a circle with radius 11 and centre OO in such a way that A1(1,0)A_1(1,0), An1(0,1)A_{n-1}(0,1) and A2,,An2A_2, \dots, A_{n-2} are all on the shorter arc A1An1A_1A_{n-1} (Fig. 16 depicts the case n=6n=6).

The vertex farthest from line OA1OA_1 is An1A_{n-1}, the vertex farthest from line OAn1OA_{n-1} is A1A_1. The vertex farthest from any other line determined by a side of the polygon is OO because the line passing through OO parallel to such a side lies in II and IV quarters while the other vertices of the polygon lie above it in I quarter. Thus the polygon is correct. The altitudes drawn to sides OA1OA_1 and OAn1OA_{n-1} are OAn1OA_{n-1} and OA1OA_1, respectively, they meet at point OO. As OO is the vertex farthest from any other side, all other altitudes meet in OO, too.

Figure 1
Fig. 16

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