Problem:
Let be an integer greater than . Points in the plane are distinct. Prove that for some , at least of the distances
are less than .
Problem:
Let be an integer greater than . Points in the plane are distinct. Prove that for some , at least of the distances
are less than .
Solution:
Cut the plane into six "pizza slices" with vertex . Rotating if necessary, we may assume that none of the lie on the cuts. By the pigeonhole principle, one slice contains at least of the . Let be a point in this slice farthest from . It remains to show that all other points in this slice satisfy .
The average of the angles of is , so , which is less than , is less than one of the other angles. Smaller angles of a triangle are opposite shorter sides, so is less than one of and . By choice of , , so in any case, . (Alternatively, one could use the Law of Cosines to show that the side of a triangle opposite an angle smaller than is not the longest.)