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Geometry Difficulty 7.7 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it JBMO

Problem:

Consider a rectangle whose lengths of sides are natural numbers. If someone places as many squares as possible, each with area 33, inside of the given rectangle, such that the sides of the squares are parallel to the rectangle sides, then the maximal number of these squares fill exactly half of the area of the rectangle. Determine the dimensions of all rectangles with this property.

Solution

Solution:

Let ABCDABCD be a rectangle with AB=mAB = m and AD=nAD = n where m,nm, n are natural numbers such that mn2m \geq n \geq 2. Suppose that inside of the rectangle ABCDABCD is placed a rectangular lattice consisting of some identical squares whose areas are equal to 33, where kk of them are placed along the side ABAB and ll of them along the side ADAD.

The sum of areas of all of these squares is equal to 3kl3kl. Besides the obvious conditions k3<mk\sqrt{3} < m and l3nl\sqrt{3} \leq n (1),\textbf{(1)}, by the assumption of the maximality of the lattice consisting of these squares, we must have (k+1)3>m(k+1)\sqrt{3} > m and (l+1)3>n(l+1)\sqrt{3} > n (2).

The proposed problem is to determine all pairs (m,n)N×N(m, n) \in \mathbb{N} \times \mathbb{N} with mn2m \geq n \geq 2, for which the ratio Rm,n=3klmnR_{m, n} = \frac{3kl}{mn} is equal to 0.50.5 where k,lk, l are natural numbers determined by the conditions (1) and (2).

Observe that for n6n \geq 6, using (2), we get
Rm,n=k3l3mn>(m3)(n3)mn=(13m)(13n)(136)2=12+71233>12+481233=0.5 R_{m, n} = \frac{k\sqrt{3} \cdot l\sqrt{3}}{mn} > \frac{(m-\sqrt{3})(n-\sqrt{3})}{mn} = \left(1-\frac{\sqrt{3}}{m}\right)\left(1-\frac{\sqrt{3}}{n}\right) \geq \left(1-\frac{\sqrt{3}}{6}\right)^2 = \frac{1}{2} + \frac{7}{12} - \frac{\sqrt{3}}{3} > \frac{1}{2} + \frac{\sqrt{48}}{12} - \frac{\sqrt{3}}{3} = 0.5
So, the condition Rm,n=0.5R_{m, n} = 0.5 yields n5n \leq 5 or n{2,3,4,5}n \in \{2,3,4,5\}. We have 4 possible cases:

Case 1: n=2n = 2. Then l=1l = 1 and thus as above we get
Rm,2=3k2m>3(m3)2m=32(13m) R_{m, 2} = \frac{3k}{2m} > \frac{\sqrt{3} \cdot (m-\sqrt{3})}{2m} = \frac{\sqrt{3}}{2} \left(1-\frac{\sqrt{3}}{m}\right)
which is greater than 0.50.5 for each m>27+32>5+32=4m > \frac{\sqrt{27} + 3}{2} > \frac{5+3}{2} = 4, hence m{2,3,4}m \in \{2,3,4\}. Direct calculations give R2,2=R2,4=0.75R_{2,2} = R_{2,4} = 0.75 and R2,3=0.5R_{2,3} = 0.5.

Case 2: n=3n = 3. Then l=1l = 1 and thus as above we get
Rm,3=3k3m>3(m3)3m=33(13m) R_{m, 3} = \frac{3k}{3m} > \frac{\sqrt{3} \cdot (m-\sqrt{3})}{3m} = \frac{\sqrt{3}}{3} \left(1-\frac{\sqrt{3}}{m}\right)
which is greater than 0.50.5 for each m>43+6>12m > 4\sqrt{3} + 6 > 12, hence m{3,4,,12}m \in \{3,4, \ldots, 12\}. Direct calculations give R3,3=0.(3)R_{3,3} = 0.(3), R3,5=0.4R_{3,5} = 0.4, R3,7=4/7R_{3,7} = 4/7, R3,9=5/9R_{3,9} = 5/9, R3,11=6/11R_{3,11} = 6/11 and R3,4=R3,6=R3,8=R3,10=R3,12=0.5R_{3,4} = R_{3,6} = R_{3,8} = R_{3,10} = R_{3,12} = 0.5.

Case 3: n=4n = 4. Then l=2l = 2 and thus as above we get
Rm,4=6k4m>3(m3)2m=32(13m) R_{m, 4} = \frac{6k}{4m} > \frac{\sqrt{3} \cdot (m-\sqrt{3})}{2m} = \frac{\sqrt{3}}{2} \left(1-\frac{\sqrt{3}}{m}\right)
which is greater than 0.50.5 for each m>27+32>5+32=4m > \frac{\sqrt{27} + 3}{2} > \frac{5+3}{2} = 4. Hence m=4m = 4 and a calculation gives R4,4=0.75R_{4,4} = 0.75.

Case 4: n=5n = 5. Then l=2l = 2 and thus as above we get
Rm,5=6k5m>23(m3)5m=235(13m) R_{m, 5} = \frac{6k}{5m} > \frac{2\sqrt{3} \cdot (m-\sqrt{3})}{5m} = \frac{2\sqrt{3}}{5} \left(1-\frac{\sqrt{3}}{m}\right)
which is greater than 0.50.5 for each m>12(43+5)23>121123>6m > \frac{12(4\sqrt{3} + 5)}{23} > \frac{12 \cdot 11}{23} > 6, hence m{5,6}m \in \{5,6\}. Direct calculations give R5,5=0.48R_{5,5} = 0.48 and R5,6=0.6R_{5,6} = 0.6.

We conclude that: Ri,j=0.5R_{i, j} = 0.5 for (i,j){(2,3);(3,4);(3,6);(3,8);(3,10);(3,12)}(i, j) \in \{(2,3); (3,4); (3,6); (3,8); (3,10); (3,12)\}.

These pairs are the dimensions of all rectangles with the desired property.

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