GeometryDifficulty 5.7AIME, harderProve itCzech-Polish-Slovak Mathematical Match
We are given 60 arbitrary points in a unit disc. Prove that there exists a point on the boundary of the disc such that the sum of its distances from all 60 given points doesn't exceed 80.
Solution
Let us inscribe an equilateral triangle PQR into the boundary unit circle. If we prove that any point X of our unit disc satisfies ∣PX∣+∣QX∣+∣RX∣≤4,(1) then summing (1), with the given points X=Xk, 1≤k≤60, we get k=1∑60∣PXk∣+k=1∑60∣QXk∣+k=1∑60∣RXk∣≤4⋅60=240. Consequently, one of the sums in the left-hand side does not exceed 240:3=80, hence some of the points P, Q, R has always the required property.
In view of symmetry, it suffices to prove (1) if X lies in the sector PSQ, where S denotes the centre of the disc. We are going to show that, in this case, ∣PX∣+∣QX∣≤2,(2) which together with ∣RX∣≤2 will lead to (1).
Let us denote S′ the midpoint of the corresponding arc PQ (opposite to the arc PRQ, Fig. 1), then clearly PS′QS is a rhombus, hence it is sufficient to prove (2) only for points X in the region PS′Q of the given disc (bounded by segment PQ and arc PS′Q). Denoting α=∣∠XPQ∣, β=∣∠XQP∣ we have α+β≤60∘ and using the law of sines in the triangle PQX we get ∣PX∣+∣QX∣=sin(α+β)∣PQ∣(sinα+sinβ)=2sin2α+βcos2α+β3⋅2sin2α+βcos2α−β=cos2α+β3cos2α−β≤33⋅1=2,as 2α+β≤30∘. Thus (2) is proven.
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
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