Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it Estonia

Two regular polygons have a common circumcircle. The sum of the areas of the incircles of these polygons equals the area of their common circumcircle. Find all possibilities of how many vertices can the two polygons have.

Solution

The ratio of the inradius and the circumradius of a regular nn-gon is cos180n\cos\frac{180^\circ}{n}. Hence the ratio of the areas of the incircle and the circumcircle of a regular nn-gon is cos2180n\cos^2\frac{180^\circ}{n}.

Let a regular nn-gon and a regular mm-gon with a common circumcircle be given. W.l.o.g., let nmn \le m and the area of the common circumcircle be 11. By the above, the areas of the incircles of these polygons are cos2180n\cos^2\frac{180^\circ}{n} and cos2180m\cos^2\frac{180^\circ}{m}, respectively. As their sum must equal the area of the common circumcircle, we get the equation

cos2180n+cos2180m=1 \cos^2\frac{180^\circ}{n} + \cos^2\frac{180^\circ}{m} = 1

which is equivalent to

cos2180n=sin2180m \cos^2\frac{180^\circ}{n} = \sin^2\frac{180^\circ}{m}

As both nn and mm are larger than 22, both 180n\frac{180^\circ}{n} and 180m\frac{180^\circ}{m} are less than 9090^\circ, whence the equation reduces to

cos180n=sin180m \cos\frac{180^\circ}{n} = \sin\frac{180^\circ}{m}

Thus

180n+180m=90 \frac{180^\circ}{n} + \frac{180^\circ}{m} = 90^\circ

implying that

1n+1m=12 \frac{1}{n} + \frac{1}{m} = \frac{1}{2}

If n=3n = 3 then m=6m = 6; if n=4n = 4 then m=4m = 4; if n>4n > 4 then m<4m < 4, contradicting the assumption nmn \le m.

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