Olympiad Maths Prep

Library / /22 of 30

Geometry Difficulty 6.7 National olympiad Prove it Belarus

4 blue, 10 green and several (at least one) red points are marked on a plane. All points are distinct. It is known that the sum of the distances between the red points and the blue points is 2121, the sum of the distances between the red points and the green points is 22.
Can the sum of the distances between the blue points and the green points be equal to
a) 2020?
b) 1818?

Solution

a) Let nn denote the number of red points. Then the following inequality holds (see (*) in the solution of Problem 2, Category C)
102142n201021+42    20220n218. 10 \cdot 21 - 4 \cdot 2 \le n \cdot 20 \le 10 \cdot 21 + 4 \cdot 2 \iff 202 \le 20n \le 218.
It is easy to see that there are no integers nn satisfying this condition.

b) We show that it is possible to mark 44 blue, 1010 green, and 1212 red points on a plane so that the problem conditions hold.
For the convenience we multiply all distances by 41012=4804 \cdot 10 \cdot 12 = 480. Let A,B,CA, B, C denote respectively the sums of the distances between red and green points, between blue and red points, green and blue points.
We have to construct the example with A=2480A = 2 \cdot 480, B=21480B = 21 \cdot 480, C=18480C = 18 \cdot 480. All points we place on the number axes.

First, we place 44 blue points at the point 00, 1010 green points at the point 216216, 66 red points at the point 202202, and the other 66 red points at the point 218218. Then C=410216=18480C = 4 \cdot 10 \cdot 216 = 18 \cdot 480, B=46202+46218=21480B = 4 \cdot 6 \cdot 202 + 4 \cdot 6 \cdot 218 = 21 \cdot 480, and A=106(216202)+106(218216)=2480A = 10 \cdot 6 \cdot (216 - 202) + 10 \cdot 6 \cdot (218 - 216) = 2 \cdot 480.
It remains to move slightly the points so that all points become distinct but A,B,CA, B, C keep their values. We can replace 44 blue points with the common coordinate 00 by the points 2ϵ-2\epsilon, ϵ-\epsilon, ϵ\epsilon, 2ϵ2\epsilon; 1010 green points with the common coordinate 216216 by the points
2165ϵ,2164ϵ,,216ϵ,216+ϵ,,216+5ϵ; 216 - 5\epsilon, 216 - 4\epsilon, \dots, 216 - \epsilon, 216 + \epsilon, \dots, 216 + 5\epsilon;
66 red points with the common coordinate 202202 by the points
2023ϵ,2022ϵ,202ϵ,202+ϵ,202+2ϵ,202+3ϵ; 202 - 3\epsilon, 202 - 2\epsilon, 202 - \epsilon, 202 + \epsilon, 202 + 2\epsilon, 202 + 3\epsilon;
and, finally, 66 red points with the common coordinate 218218 by the points
2183ϵ,2182ϵ,218ϵ,218+ϵ,218+2ϵ,218+3ϵ. 218 - 3\epsilon, 218 - 2\epsilon, 218 - \epsilon, 218 + \epsilon, 218 + 2\epsilon, 218 + 3\epsilon.
We can choose ϵ\epsilon sufficiently small to keep the order of the points on the number axes.

Looking for a route rather than 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 and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.