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Geometry Difficulty 6.4 National olympiad Prove it Iran

Let P\mathcal{P} be a simple polygon (non-self-intersecting) with perimeter 3636 that lies in a circle with radius 11 and does not pass through the center of it. Prove that there is either a radius of this circle that intersects P\mathcal{P} at least 66 times, or there is a second circle which is concentric with this circle that has at least 66 common points with P\mathcal{P}.

Solution

Fix a radius of circle CC, OXOX and for each segment ABAB from the perimeter of PP (don't include polygon vertices in this process), consider the projection of ABAB to OXOX (ABA'B') and the projection of ABAB to the perimeter of CC (ABA''B'').

Figure 1

Call ABA'B' the radius projection of ABAB and ABA''B'' the perimeter projection of ABAB. It's obvious that
AB<AB+AB. AB < A'B' + A''B''.
Now let α\alpha be the sum of all radius projections of all edges of PP and β\beta be the sum of all perimeter projections of all edges of PP.
From the above, α+β>36>4+10π\alpha + \beta > 36 > 4 + 10\pi, hence α>4\alpha > 4 or β>10π\beta > 10\pi:

* If α>4\alpha > 4, there is a point on OXOX that is covered by 55 radius projections. Call this point YY, then the circle with center OO and radius OYOY will intersect P\mathcal{P} at least 66 times. (Because if a circle intersects a polygon and doesn't pass through its vertices, it will have an even number of intersections.)

* If β>5×2π\beta > 5 \times 2\pi, then there is a point on the perimeter that is covered by at least 66 perimeter projections. Call this point ZZ, then radius OZOZ intersects P\mathcal{P} at least 66 times.

We are done.

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