Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /1233 of 1394

, 2025

Geometry Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
Determine, with proof, whether a square can be dissected into finitely many (not necessarily congruent) triangles, each of which has interior angles 3030^{\circ}, 7575^{\circ}, and 7575^{\circ}.

Solution

Solution:
Assume for sake of contradiction that such a dissection exists. It has exactly half as many 3030^{\circ} angles as 7575^{\circ} angles.

Around any intersection point except the square's vertices, the only angles that can appear are 3030^{\circ}, 7575^{\circ}, and 180180^{\circ}. The only combinations of these that sum to 180180^{\circ} or 360360^{\circ} are
630=180,6 \cdot 30^{\circ} = 180^{\circ},
30+275=180,30^{\circ} + 2 \cdot 75^{\circ} = 180^{\circ},
180=180,180^{\circ} = 180^{\circ},
1230=360,12 \cdot 30^{\circ} = 360^{\circ},
730+275=360,7 \cdot 30^{\circ} + 2 \cdot 75^{\circ} = 360^{\circ},
230+475=360,2 \cdot 30^{\circ} + 4 \cdot 75^{\circ} = 360^{\circ},
630+180=360,6 \cdot 30^{\circ} + 180^{\circ} = 360^{\circ},
30+275+180=360,30^{\circ} + 2 \cdot 75^{\circ} + 180^{\circ} = 360^{\circ},
180+180=360.180^{\circ} + 180^{\circ} = 360^{\circ}.
In particular, around any such point, there are at least half as many 3030^{\circ} angles as 7575^{\circ} angles.

However, the square's vertices must each be surrounded by three 3030^{\circ} angles and zero 7575^{\circ} angles, as there is no other way to get a sum of 9090^{\circ}. Thus the total number of 3030^{\circ} angles in the dissection must be at least 12 more than half the number of 7575^{\circ} angles, contradiction.

Thus no such dissection exists.

Solution 2:
Again assume for sake of contradiction that a dissection exists. Interpret the dissection as a graph GG, where the vertices of the graph are the vertices of all the triangles, and edges connect each pair of consecutive vertices along a line segment.

Call a vertex flat if it is on either the boundary of the square (including its corners) or the interior of an edge of any triangle. Let XX be the number of flat vertices and YY be the number of non-flat vertices in GG. Let EE and FF be the number of edges and faces (triangles) in the dissection, respectively. Then (X+Y)E+F=1(X + Y) - E + F = 1.

Observing the angle combinations in the first solution, we see that any non-flat vertex must have at least 6 incident edges, and any flat vertex must have at least 4. Thus 2E6Y+4X2E \geq 6Y + 4X, so E3Y+2XE \geq 3Y + 2X.

The sum of the angles of all FF triangles is πF\pi F. Around any non-flat vertex, such angles sum to 2π2\pi. Around any flat vertex, the angles sum to π\pi, with the exception of the four corners of the square, where they sum to π/2\pi/2 instead. Thus
Fπ=(X4)π+4(π/2)+Y(2π)=(X+2Y2)π,F\pi = (X - 4)\pi + 4(\pi/2) + Y(2\pi) = (X + 2Y - 2)\pi,
so F=X+2Y2F = X + 2Y - 2. This means
X+YE+F(X+Y)(3Y+2X)+(X+2Y2)=2,X + Y - E + F \leq (X + Y) - (3Y + 2X) + (X + 2Y - 2) = -2,
contradiction. Thus no dissection exists.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.