Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /1163 of 1394

, 2019

Geometry Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
A regular hexagon PROFITP R O F I T has area 11. Every minute, greedy George places the largest possible equilateral triangle that does not overlap with other already-placed triangles in the hexagon, with ties broken arbitrarily. How many triangles would George need to cover at least 90%90\% of the hexagon's area?

Solution

Solution:
It's not difficult to see that the first triangle must connect three non-adjacent vertices (e.g. POIP O I), which covers area 12\frac{1}{2}, and leaves three 3030-3030-120120 triangles of area 16\frac{1}{6} each. Then, the next three triangles cover 13\frac{1}{3} of the respective small triangle they are in, and leave six 3030-3030-120120 triangles of area 118\frac{1}{18} each.

This process continues, doubling the number of 3030-3030-120120 triangles each round and the area of each triangle is divided by 33 each round. After 1+3+6+12+24=461+3+6+12+24=46 triangles, the remaining area is 324634=48486=881<0.1\frac{3 \cdot 2^{4}}{6 \cdot 3^{4}}=\frac{48}{486}=\frac{8}{81}<0.1, and the last triangle removed triangle has area 1486\frac{1}{486}, so this is the minimum number necessary.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.