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Geometry Difficulty 7.9 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Romania

Given an integer n3n \ge 3, determine the largest number of pairwise non-crossing or perpendicular diagonals a regular nn-gon may have.
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Solution

Begin by noticing that a regular polygon with an odd number of vertices has no perpendicular diagonals. Suppose, if possible, that u,v,x,yu, v, x, y are vertices, and uvuv and xyxy are perpendicular. Consider the vertex ww on the perpendicular bisectrix of the segment uvuv, and its antipode ww' on the circumcircle. Since the segments wxwx and wyw'y have equal lengths, and w,x,yw, x, y are vertices of the regular polygon, so is ww', contradicting the fact that a regular polygon with an odd number of vertices contains no pair of antipodes on the circumcircle.

Since the maximum number of pairwise non-crossing diagonals of a convex kk-gon is k3k-3, this solves the problem if nn is odd.

We now show by induction on nn that a cyclic nn-gon has at most n2n-2 pairwise non-crossing or perpendicular diagonals.

The base case n=3n=3 holds vacuously, so let n4n \ge 4, assume the upper bound for any cyclic polygon with less than nn vertices, and consider a set SS of pairwise non-crossing or perpendicular diagonals of a cyclic nn-gon.

Assume first that some diagonal in SS is crossed by no other diagonal in SS. That diagonal splits the nn-gon into an \ell-gon and an mm-gon, where +m=n+2\ell + m = n + 2, and splits SS into corresponding diagonals of the two. Since one of these polygons, say, the \ell-gon, lies in a half-circumdisc, no pair of diagonals of the \ell-gon cross orthogonally. Consequently, the diagonals in SS joining vertices of the \ell-gon are pairwise non-crossing, so there are at most 3\ell - 3 such. By the induction hypothesis, the mm-gon has at most m2m - 2 pairwise non-crossing or perpendicular diagonals, so S(3)+(m2)+1=n2|S| \le (\ell - 3) + (m - 2) + 1 = n - 2.

We are left with the case where each diagonal in SS is crossed by, and hence perpendicular to, at least one other diagonal in SS. Fix two crossing, hence orthogonal, diagonals dd and dd' in SS. Their endpoints split the circumcircle into four non-overlapping arcs, none of which exceeds a semicircle.

We show that any diagonal in SS is parallel to one of these two diagonals. Suppose, if possible, that δ\delta is a diagonal in SS parallel to neither. Then one of the four non-overlapping arcs above contains both endpoints of δ\delta. The diagonal δ\delta' in SS, crossing δ\delta orthogonally, crosses at least one of dd and dd', and since δ\delta is parallel to neither, δ\delta' is orthogonal to neither – a contradiction.

Consequently, at most two diagonals in SS may emanate from a vertex of the nn-gon. Further, no other diagonal in SS may emanate from either vertex of the longest diagonal in SS parallel to dd — otherwise, such a diagonal would be orthogonally crossed by a longer diagonal in SS. The same holds for the longest diagonal in SS parallel to dd'. To conclude, S12(2(n4)+4)=n2|S| \le \frac{1}{2}(2(n-4) + 4) = n - 2.

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