Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /7 of 8

Geometry Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Brazil

Given positive real numbers x1,x2,,xnx_1, x_2, \dots, x_n find the polygon A0A1AnA_0A_1 \dots A_n with A0A1=x1A_0A_1 = x_1, A1A2=x2A_1A_2 = x_2, \dots, An1An=xnA_{n-1}A_n = x_n which has the greatest area.

Solution

The answer is the convex polygon inscribed in a semicircle of diameter A0AnA_0A_n, that is, A0AiAn=90\angle A_0A_iA_n = 90^\circ for all i=1,2,,n1i = 1, 2, \dots, n-1.

First of all, the polygon must be convex because if it isn't the case one can obtain a polygon of greater area by reflecting the sides of the polygon inside of its convex hull.

Consider an arbitrary vertex AiA_i and fix the polygons A0A1AiA_0A_1 \dots A_i, AiAi+1AnA_iA_{i+1} \dots A_n; in particular, A0AiA_0A_i and AiAnA_iA_n are fixed. Now the area of A0A1A2AnA_0A_1A_2 \dots A_n is the sum of the areas of the fixed polygons A0A1AiA_0A_1 \dots A_i, AiAi+1AnA_iA_{i+1} \dots A_n and the triangle A0AiAnA_0A_iA_n, which attains its maximum if and only if A0AiAn=90\angle A_0A_iA_n = 90^\circ, since the area of the triangle is 12AiA0AiAnsinA0AiAn\frac{1}{2}A_iA_0 \cdot A_iA_n \sin \angle A_0A_iA_n and AiA0A_iA_0 and AiAnA_iA_n are both fixed.

It remains to show that such polygon is unique. Indeed, if A0An=2rA_0A_n = 2r and OO is the midpoint of A0AnA_0A_n and center of the semicircle, then AiOAi+1=2arcsinxi+xi+12r\angle A_iOA_{i+1} = 2 \arcsin \frac{x_i+x_{i+1}}{2r}. But i=1n2arcsinxi+xi+12r=π\sum_{i=1}^n 2 \arcsin \frac{x_i+x_{i+1}}{2r} = \pi and arcsin\arcsin is increasing in [0,1][0, 1], so rr is unique and hence the polygon is unique.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.