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Geometry Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it Singapore

Determine all real numbers xx between 00 and 180180 such that it is possible to partition an equilateral triangle into finitely many triangles, each of which has an angle of xx^\circ.

Solution

Consider the sum of the angles of the triangles at each type of the vertices. At type 0, the sum is 180180^\circ. At type 1, the sum is 180t1180t_1. At type 2, the sum is 360t2360t_2. Therefore
180+180t1+360t2=180n1+t1+2t2=n. 180 + 180t_1 + 360t_2 = 180n \Rightarrow 1 + t_1 + 2t_2 = n.
Now each Type 1 vertex has at most 1 angle of xx^\circ and each Type 2 vertex has at most 2 which each Type 0 vertex has, none. So the number of angles of xx^\circ is t1+2t2<n\le t_1 + 2t_2 < n, a contradiction.

Now we construct for each x(0,120]x \in (0, 120]. It is trivial for x=120x = 120. Take the centre of the triangle and join it to the vertices to obtain a partition into 3 congruent triangles. Now assume x(0,120)x \in (0, 120).

Define an (a,b)(a, b)-trapezium to be the trapezium ABCDABCD with A=D=60\angle A = \angle D = 60^\circ, AB=CD=aAB = CD = a, BC=bBC = b. Then it follows that AD=a+bAD = a + b. We call a polygon xx-good if it can be partitioned into triangles each with one xx^\circ angle.

Lemma 1: There exists R(a)R(a) such that an (a,b)(a, b)-trapezium is xx-good when b>R(a)b > R(a).
Proof: The proof is clear from Fig. A. The second, third and fourth triangles are isosceles. The fifth and sixth triangles form a parallelogram with arbitrarily long horizontal side.

Figure 1

Fig.A

Figure 2
Fig.B

Lemma 2: An (a,b)(a, b)-trapezium is xx-good.
Proof: It follows from the fact that the trapezium can be sliced into arbitrarily thin (a,b)(a', b')-trapezium so that b>R(a)b' > R(a'). (See Fig. B.)
Since an equilateral triangle can be partitioned in (a,b)(a, b)-trapeziums, the proof is complete.

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