Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /46 of 48

Combinatorics Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

Let nn be an integer greater than 1212. Points P1,P2,,Pn,QP_{1}, P_{2}, \ldots, P_{n}, Q in the plane are distinct. Prove that for some ii, at least n/61n / 6 - 1 of the distances
P1Pi,P2Pi,,Pi1Pi,Pi+1Pi,,PnPi P_{1} P_{i}, P_{2} P_{i}, \ldots, P_{i-1} P_{i}, P_{i+1} P_{i}, \ldots, P_{n} P_{i}
are less than PiQP_{i} Q.

Solution

Solution:

Cut the plane into six 6060^{\circ} "pizza slices" with vertex QQ. Rotating if necessary, we may assume that none of the PjP_{j} lie on the cuts. By the pigeonhole principle, one slice contains at least n/6n / 6 of the PjP_{j}. Let PiP_{i} be a point in this slice farthest from QQ. It remains to show that all other points PjP_{j} in this slice satisfy PjPi<PiQP_{j} P_{i} < P_{i} Q.

The average of the angles of ΔPjPiQ\Delta P_{j} P_{i} Q is 180/3=60180^{\circ} / 3 = 60^{\circ}, so PjQPi\angle P_{j} Q P_{i}, which is less than 6060^{\circ}, is less than one of the other angles. Smaller angles of a triangle are opposite shorter sides, so PjPiP_{j} P_{i} is less than one of PjQP_{j} Q and PiQP_{i} Q. By choice of ii, PjQPiQP_{j} Q \leq P_{i} Q, so in any case, PjPi<PiQP_{j} P_{i} < P_{i} Q. (Alternatively, one could use the Law of Cosines to show that the side of a triangle opposite an angle smaller than 6060^{\circ} is not the longest.)

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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