Problem:
a. Prove that there are points on the unit circle such that the distance between any two of them is rational.
b. Does there exist an infinite set of points on the unit circle such that the distance between any two of them is rational?
Problem:
a. Prove that there are points on the unit circle such that the distance between any two of them is rational.
b. Does there exist an infinite set of points on the unit circle such that the distance between any two of them is rational?
Solution:
The answer to part (b) is yes.
For brevity, we use the notation of complex numbers. For any integers and , not both zero, let and
Clearly, so is a point on the unit circle. We claim that for any and , the distance between and is rational. We compute:
The expression in parentheses is purely imaginary (being the difference of a complex number and its conjugate). Its imaginary part is rational since the components of and are rational. We conclude that is rational.
To finish the proof, it suffices to show that takes on infinitely many values. It is not hard to check that the choices all give distinct values of .