Problem:
One marks 16 points on a circle. What is the maximum number of acute triangles with vertices in these points?
Problem:
One marks 16 points on a circle. What is the maximum number of acute triangles with vertices in these points?
Solution:
Consider the set of all angles , where , and is an arbitrary triple of selected points. There are different angles in this set. Suppose of them are not acute. We shall prove .
For each integer between 1 and 7, take a chord with endpoints among the selected points such that there are exactly selected points to one side of the chord (not including the endpoints). We will call such a chord an -chord. Each -chord subtends not less than nonacute angles with vertices among the marked points. For each there are exactly -chords, and for there are exactly of them. So the total number of nonacute angles is at least .
There are triangles with vertices among the marked points. Each nonacute angle will "spoil" exactly one triangle, so the number of acute triangles is not greater than .
It is only left to construct an example with exactly 168 acute triangles. Mark eight consecutive vertices of a right 16-gon . Draw a line through the center of the 16-gon not parallel to , such that all 's lie on the same side of that line (and not on the line). Reflecting the 's with respect to that line we get points . We claim that the set is as wanted. Indeed, there are no diametrically opposite points in this set (otherwise we would get or ), and so for each -chord subtends exactly 8 nonacute angles. Moreover, for each each -chord subtends exactly nonacute angles, and so , and the number of acute triangles is 168.