Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.3 National Olympiad Prove it Romania

Consider a 7-point configuration consisting of the vertices of a quadrangle (not necessarily convex) along with three other points lying in the interior or on the boundary of the quadrangle. Every pair of distinct points in the configuration are at least 11 distance apart. Show that the diameter of the quadrangle is greater than 22.

Solution

Let CC denote the 77-point configuration and let [C][C] denote its convex hull. The latter is either a triangle formed by three vertices of the quadrangle or the quadrangle itself. Since the diameter of [C][C] is the longest distance determined by some pair of vertices, it is sufficient to show that this diameter is greater than 22.

To this end, consider the closed discs of radius 1/21/2 centered at those points of CC that are not vertices of [C][C]; call these discs, 'inner' discs.

If one of the sides of [C][C] intersects two inner discs, then its length is at least 33/2>23\sqrt{3}/2 > 2.

Assume henceforth that no side of [C][C] intersects two inner discs and consider the number of sides of [C][C] intersecting none of these discs.

If this number is at least two, and [C][C] is a triangle, then the latter covers at least three inner discs, so its area is at least 3π/43\pi/4, and its longest side has length at least 3π/2>2\sqrt{3\pi/2} > 2. And if [C][C] is a quadrangle, then it covers at least one inner disc, at least half of each of the other two, and the four internal vertex sectors of radius 1/21/2; the area of [C][C] is again greater than or equal to the total area of three discs of radius 1/21/2, so its longest diagonal has length at least 3π/2>2\sqrt{3\pi/2} > 2.

We are left with the case where the number of sides of [C][C] intersecting no inner disc is at most one.

If [C][C] is a triangle, refer again to the area argument above: Either [C][C] covers at least two inner discs and at least half of a third or it covers at least one inner disc and at least half of each of the other three; it also covers the three internal vertex sectors of radius 1/21/2, so its area is again greater than or equal to the total area of three discs of radius 1/21/2.

Finally, if [C][C] is a quadrangle, then it has at least three sides of length greater than or equal to 3\sqrt{3} each. If it is a rectangle, then the length of the diagonal is at least 6>2\sqrt{6} > 2. Otherwise, a diagonal not passing through the vertex of an obtuse internal angle (there is at least one such) has length greater than 22.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.