Outside a regular polygon A1A2…An a point B is given so that A1A2B is a regular triangle. Determine all n such that points B, A2 and A3 are consecutive vertices of some regular polygon.
Solution
Let the new polygon have m vertices. Two cases are possible:
Case 1. The new polygon lies outside the given polygon. In other words, m-gon and n-gon are on opposite sides of the line A2A3. In this case ∠BA2A3+∠A1A2A3+60∘=360∘. nn−2⋅180∘+mm−2⋅180∘+60∘=360∘ 3m(n−2)+3n(m−2)+mn=6mn mn−6m=6n m=n−66n=6+n−636. Obviously n−6∈N and n−6 divides 36. Checking all the possibilities we find nine solutions:
n - 6
1
2
3
4
6
9
12
18
36
n
7
8
9
10
12
15
18
24
42
m
42
24
18
15
12
10
9
8
7
Case 2. The observed m-gon and n-gon are on the same side of the line A2A3. In this case we have ∠BA2A3=∠A1A2A3+60∘ mm−2⋅180∘3n(m−2)6n+nmn=60∘+nn−2⋅180∘=mn+3m(n−2)=6m=m+66m=6−m+636. Since n≥3, m+636 must belong to {1,2,3}. From there we get another three solutions m+6mn36305181241263
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Source: MathNet,
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