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XV-th Junior Balkan Mathematical Olympiad

Geometry Difficulty 6.7 National Olympiad Prove it North Macedonia

Let n>3n > 3 be a positive integer. An equilateral triangle ABCABC is divided into n2n^2 identical equilateral "small" triangles using lines parallel to its sides. The figure below illustrates the case n=4n = 4. Let mm be the number of rhombi consisting of 2 "small" triangles. Let dd be the number of rhombi consisting of 8 "small" triangles. Find the difference m−dm - d in terms of nn.
Figure 1

Solution

Each line segment with ends from the set SS of length kn\frac{k}{n} (not lying on a side of the triangle) is the diagonal of one and only one rhombus of type MM. The segments parallel to one side of the triangle are
1+2+3+…+(n−1)=n(n−1)2. 1 + 2 + 3 + \ldots + (n-1) = \frac{n(n-1)}{2}.
Therefore, the total number of rhombi of type MM is:
m=3n(n−1)2. m = 3 \frac{n(n-1)}{2}.

For the counting of rhombi of type DD, we distinguish the points of SS which are interior points of the triangle ABCABC into three categories as follows.
Figure 2

The first category of points are centers of exactly one rhombus of type DD. These points are only 3, for every nn. In figure (3) you can see the case for n=8n = 8.

The second category consists of points which are centers of exactly two rhombi of type DD. These points lie on the segments which are parallel to the sides of the triangle ABCABC and at the shortest possible distance from them. On each such segment there exist n−4n-4 such points, and therefore we have 3(n−4)3(n-4) points of this category. In figure (4) you can see these points for n=8n = 8.
Figure 3

The third category consists of the rest of the points which are centers of three rhombi of type DD. These points are totally:
1+2+…+(n−5)=(n−5)(n−4)2. 1 + 2 + \ldots + (n-5) = \frac{(n-5)(n-4)}{2}.
In figure (5) you can see these points for n=8n = 8.
Figure 4

Hence, the number of rhombi of type DD is the following:
d=3+3(n−4)+3(n−5)(n−4)2⇔d=32[2+(n−1)(n−4)]. d = 3 + 3(n-4) + 3 \frac{(n-5)(n-4)}{2} \Leftrightarrow d = \frac{3}{2}[2 + (n-1)(n-4)].

Finally, we have m−d=3(2n−3)m - d = 3(2n - 3).

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