Problem:
What is the greatest number of sides of a convex polygon that can equal its longest diagonal?
Solution
Solution:
Answer: 2, except for the equilateral triangle.
It is easy to find two. Take the two sides to be and with angle , and take the other vertices on the minor arc of the circle center radius between and .
Let the longest diagonal have length . Suppose there are three sides with length . Extend them (if necessary) so they meet at , , . Suppose . Take the vertices on side to be , (where we may have , or , or both). Take the vertices on side to be , (where we may have , or , or both). Then , , so . Contradiction. Hence angle . The same is true for and . Hence . But now unless . Similarly, and must be vertices of the convex polygon, so that it is just an equilateral triangle.
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.