GeometryDifficulty 7.6National Olympiad, round 2Prove itUnited States
Find all integers n≥3 such that among any n positive real numbers a1,a2,…,an with max(a1,a2,…,an)≤n⋅min(a1,a2,…,an), there exist three that are the side lengths of an acute triangle.
Solution
Solution. The answer is n≥13. First, we show that any n≥13 satisfies the desired condition. Suppose for the sake of contradiction that a1≤a2≤⋯≤an are integers such that max(a1,a2,…,an)≤n⋅min(a1,a2,…,an) and no three are the side lengths of an acute triangle. We conclude that ai+22≥ai2+ai+12(2) for all i≤n−2. Letting {Fn} be the Fibonacci numbers, defined by F1=F2=1 and Fn+1=Fn+Fn−1 for n≥2, repeated application of (2) and the ordering of the {ai} implies that ai2≥Fi⋅a12(3) for all i≤n. Noting that F12=122, an easy induction shows that Fn>n2 for n>12. Hence, if n≥13, (3) implies an2>n2⋅a12, a contradiction. This shows that any n≥13 satisfies the condition of the problem.
On the other hand, for any n<13, we may take ai=Fi for 1≤i≤n, so that max(a1,a2,…,an)≤n⋅min(a1,a2,…,an) holds because Fn≤n2 for n≤12. Further, for i<j, we have Fi+Fj≤Fj+1, which shows that for i<j<k, we have ak2≥ai2+aj2. Hence, {ai,aj,ak} are not the side lengths of an acute triangle. Therefore, all n<13 do not satisfy the conditions of the problem, and the answer is n≥13.
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