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Geometry Difficulty 6.6 National olympiad Prove it Estonia

On a plane a finite number of points are marked of which no three are collinear. Assume that there exists a non-convex polygon with all of its vertices located at some of those points. Prove that there exists a non-convex quadrilateral such that all its vertices lie at the marked points.

Solution

There has to be a point inside the convex hull of the set of marked points, otherwise any subset of points would form a convex polygon. Let us partition the convex hull into triangles by drawing a necessary amount of diagonals. As no three points are on the same line, the marked point inside the convex hull must be inside one of the triangles. The vertices of that triangle along with the marked point inside the triangle form a non-convex quadrilateral.

We show that it is possible to find 4 points among the vertices of the non-convex nn-gon such that they form a non-convex quadrilateral. Let AA, BB, and CC be consecutive vertices of the nn-gon such that the internal angle ABC>180\angle ABC > 180^\circ. Let AA' and CC' be points on the extensions of ABAB and BCBC over BB. Then the closed broken line corresponding to the polygon has to go through the interior of ABC\angle A'BC'. If this area contains a marked point, say XX, then ABCXABCX is non-convex (Fig. 15).

Figure 1
Fig. 15

Alternatively, if there are no vertices of the nn-gon within the interior of ABC\angle A'BC', then it has to be intersected by a side of the polygon, say DEDE, where DD is on the side of point AA and EE is on the side of point CC (Fig. 16). Let us show that then DBCEDBCE is a non-convex quadrilateral. Indeed, the opposite sides DBDB and CECE are non-intersecting as they are located in different regions of the plane bordered by the lines AAAA' and CCCC'. The opposite sides BCBC and EDED are also non-intersecting as they are sides of the original nn-gon. In addition, DBC>180\angle DBC > 180^\circ.

Figure 2
Fig. 16

Let us prove by induction on nn that among the nn vertices of the nn-gon it is possible to choose 4 vertices which form a non-convex quadrilateral. Trivially, the base case n=4n = 4 is true. Assume now that n>4n > 4 and that the statement is true for all non-convex polygons with less sides. A non-convex polygon has an interior angle greater than 180180^\circ and also an interior angle smaller than 180180^\circ. Let's verify that it is not possible that every pair of angles one of which is greater than 180180^\circ and the other one smaller than 180180^\circ are neighbours to each other. Indeed, as each of the vertices has 2 neighbours, there could be at most 2 angles less than 180180^\circ and at most 2 angles greater than 180180^\circ. But n>4n > 4, contradiction. Therefore, it is possible to find three consecutive vertices AA, BB, and CC and a vertex EE different from the former three, such that internal angle B<180\angle B < 180^\circ and internal angle A>180\angle A' > 180^\circ.

Figure 3
Fig. 17

If there is a vertex XX in the interior of triangle ABCABC, then ABCXABCX is non-convex. If there are no vertices in the interior of triangle ABCABC, then by removing point BB we get a n1n-1-gon which still has interior angle E>180\angle E > 180^\circ. Hence it has 4 vertices forming a non-convex quadrilateral by the induction hypothesis.

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