Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /248 of 397

Geometry Difficulty 6.2 National Olympiad Prove it Taiwan

Given a circle ω\omega of radius 11 in the plane. For a set TT consisting of triangles, if it satisfies the following two conditions:
(i) every triangle in TT is inscribed in ω\omega,
(ii) no two triangles in TT have a common interior point,
then we say TT is superb.
Determine all positive real numbers tt such that for every positive integer nn, one can find a superb set TT consisting of nn triangles, each of whose triangles has perimeter greater than tt.

Solution

t(0,4]t \in (0, 4].

First, we show how to construct a good collection of nn triangles, each of perimeter greater than 44. This will show that all t4t \le 4 satisfy the required conditions.

Construct inductively an (n+2)(n+2)-gon BA1A2AnCBA_1A_2\dots A_nC inscribed in ω\omega such that BCBC is a diameter, and BA1A2,BA2A3,,BAn1An,BAnCBA_1A_2, BA_2A_3, \dots, BA_{n-1}A_n, BA_nC is a good collection of nn triangles. For n=1n=1, take any triangle BA1CBA_1C inscribed in ω\omega such that BCBC is a diameter; its perimeter is greater than 2BC=42\cdot BC = 4. To perform the inductive step, assume that the (n+2)(n+2)-gon BA1A2AnCBA_1A_2\dots A_nC is already constructed. Since AnB+AnC+BC>4A_nB + A_nC + BC > 4, one can choose a point An+1A_{n+1} on the small arc CAnCA_n, close enough to CC, so that AnB+AnAn+1+BAn+1A_nB + A_nA_{n+1} + BA_{n+1} is still greater than 44. Thus each of the new triangles BAnAn+1BA_nA_{n+1} and BAn+1CBA_{n+1}C has perimeter greater than 44, which completes the induction step.

We proceed by showing that no t>4t > 4 satisfies the conditions of the problem. To this end, we assume that there exists a good collection TT of nn triangles, each of perimeter greater than tt, and then bound nn from above.

Take ε>0\varepsilon > 0 such that t=4+2εt = 4 + 2\varepsilon.

Claim. There exists a positive constant σ=σ(ε)\sigma = \sigma(\varepsilon) such that any triangle Δ\Delta with perimeter 2s4+2ε2s \ge 4 + 2\varepsilon, inscribed in ω\omega, has area S(Δ)S(\Delta) at least σ\sigma.

Proof. Let a,b,ca, b, c be the side lengths of Δ\Delta. Since Δ\Delta is inscribed in ω\omega, each side has length at most 22. Therefore, sa(2+ε)2=εs - a \ge (2 + \varepsilon) - 2 = \varepsilon. Similarly, sbεs - b \ge \varepsilon and scεs - c \ge \varepsilon. By Heron's formula, S(Δ)=s(sa)(sb)(sc)(2+ε)3εS(\Delta) = \sqrt{s(s-a)(s-b)(s-c)} \ge \sqrt{(2+\varepsilon)^3\varepsilon}. Thus we can set σ(ε)=(2+ε)3ε\sigma(\varepsilon) = \sqrt{(2+\varepsilon)^3\varepsilon}. \square

Now we see that the total area SS of all triangles from TT is at least nσ(ε)n \cdot \sigma(\varepsilon). On the other hand, SS does not exceed the area of the disk bounded by ω\omega. Thus nσ(ε)πn\sigma(\varepsilon) \le \pi, which means that nn is bounded from the above.

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 translated into English from zh; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.