2022 points of a circle are uniformly marked (arc distances between neighbouring marked points coincide). arcs with different lengths and with endpoints at marked points are chosen so that no arc lies inside another one. Find the largest possible value of .
Solution
Answer: 1011.
We show that the answer for points is . Let us numerate marked points in clockwise order by . The arc starting at point and ending at in clockwise order will be denoted by .
The arcs chosen as satisfy conditions.
Now suppose that chosen arcs satisfy problem conditions. Let the shortest and longest chosen arcs are and , respectively. Suppose that the arc lengths of and are and , respectively.
Case 1. .
Any chosen arc except and will either start on arc or end on arc . Internal marked points of can be both starting and ending points of chosen arcs. Therefore, the sum of the number of possible starting and ending points is . Since we get . There are at least chosen arcs except and . Each of them either starts or ends at one of these points. Therefore, two of these arcs either starts or ends at the same marked point, a contradiction.
Case 2. . Without loss of generality .
Any chosen arc except and will either will start on arc or end on arc . Let be the length of arc . Internal marked points of can be both starting and ending points of chosen arcs. Therefore, the sum of the number of possible starting and ending points is . Since we get . There are at least chosen arcs except and . Each of them either starts or ends at one of these points. Therefore, two of these arcs either starts or ends at the same marked point, a contradiction. Done.