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Geometry Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it Ireland

Show that there exists a convex hexagon in the plane such that the distance between every pair of vertices is an integer.

Solutions — 3

Solution 1

Let P1P_1, P2P_2, P3P_3 be the vertices of an equilateral triangle with sides of length 11 inscribed in a circle. Obtain points Q1Q_1, Q2Q_2, Q3Q_3 by rotating the triangle P1P2P3P_1P_2P_3 so that QiQ_i lies on the minor arc PiPi+1P_iP_{i+1}. Let P1Q1=a|P_1Q_1| = a and Q1P2=b|Q_1P_2| = b. Applying Ptolemy's theorem to the cyclic quadrilateral P1Q1P2P3P_1Q_1P_2P_3, we get Q1P3=a+b|Q_1P_3| = a + b. Similarly Q2P1=a+b=Q3P2|Q_2P_1| = a + b = |Q_3P_2|.

Figure 1

Applying the Cosine Law to triangle P1Q1P2P_1Q_1P_2 and using that P2Q1P1=180P2P3P1=120\angle P_2Q_1P_1 = 180^\circ - \angle P_2P_3P_1 = 120^\circ, we find that a2+ab+b2=1a^2 + ab + b^2 = 1. We wish to find solutions of this with aa, bb rational and then scale up the diagram by an integer factor to obtain a hexagon in which all distances between vertices are integers. More specifically, we seek positive integers m1m_1, m2m_2, nn such that
(m1n)2+m1m2n2+(m2n)2=1 \left(\frac{m_1}{n}\right)^2 + \frac{m_1m_2}{n^2} + \left(\frac{m_2}{n}\right)^2 = 1
i.e. m12+m1m2+m22=n2m_1^2 + m_1m_2 + m_2^2 = n^2. By trial and error, we may find that m1=5m_1 = 5, m2=3m_2 = 3, n=7n = 7 is such a solution. This leads to a=5/7a = 5/7, b=3/7b = 3/7 and then a+b=8/7a+b = 8/7. We now need to scale up the original diagram by a factor of 77.

Solution 2

The Pythagorean triple (3,4,5)(3, 4, 5) gives rise to two triples with a shared length: (9,12,15)(9, 12, 15) and (12,16,20)(12, 16, 20). The corresponding triangles PABPAB and QACQAC can be put together as in the diagram below:

Figure 2

Reflecting this diagram in the line AQAQ and then in the perpendicular bisector of PQPQ, we obtain a hexagon ABCDEFABCDEF as shown in the next diagram.

The only distance that remains to be checked is BE|BE|, but this is the hypotenuse of a right angled triangle with sides 77 and 2424, so BE=25|BE| = 25.

Solution 3

Let Px=(cos(x),sin(x))P_x = (\cos(x), \sin(x)) be the point on the unit circle given by the angle xx and recall that
sin(α±β)=sin(α)cos(β)±cos(α)sin(β)cos(α±β)=cos(α)cos(β)sin(α)sin(β). \sin(\alpha \pm \beta) = \sin(\alpha) \cos(\beta) \pm \cos(\alpha) \sin(\beta) \\ \cos(\alpha \pm \beta) = \cos(\alpha) \cos(\beta) \mp \sin(\alpha) \sin(\beta).
This means that the points Pα+βP_{\alpha+\beta} and PαβP_{\alpha-\beta} have rational coordinates whenever this is the case for the two points PαP_{\alpha} and PβP_{\beta}. Also, recall that the length of a chord ABAB of the unit circle subtending a central angle of size 2α2\alpha is equal to 2sin(α)2\sin(\alpha). The consequence is that the chord P2αP2βP_{2\alpha}P_{2\beta} has rational length whenever PαP_{\alpha} and PβP_{\beta} both have rational coordinates.

Hence, when we pick n3n \ge 3 points on the unit circle, all of the form P2αP_{2\alpha} where PαP_{\alpha} has rational coordinates, we obtain a convex nn-gon such that the distances between every pair of vertices is a rational number. Scaling up with the common denominator gives integer distances.

To construct explicit examples, recall that each Pythagorean triple (a,b,c)(a, b, c) gives rise to a point (a/c,b/c)(a/c, b/c) on the unit circle (and vice versa). For example, starting with
Pα=(cos(α),sin(α))=(45,35), we obtain P_{\alpha} = (\cos(\alpha), \sin(\alpha)) = \left(\frac{4}{5}, \frac{3}{5}\right), \text{ we obtain}
P2α=(cos(2α),sin(2α))=(cos2(α)sin2(α),2sin(α)cos(α))=(725,2425). P_{2\alpha} = (\cos(2\alpha), \sin(2\alpha)) = (\cos^2(\alpha) - \sin^2(\alpha), 2 \sin(\alpha) \cos(\alpha)) = \left(\frac{7}{25}, \frac{24}{25}\right).
When we use D=(1,0)D = (1,0), E=P2αE = P_{2\alpha}, scale up by the factor 25/225/2 and use symmetry we arrive at the example from Solution 2.

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