Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Estonia

Find the greatest natural number nn for which it is possible to choose nn vertices of a cube such that no three of them form a right triangle.
Figure 1

Figure 1
Figure 9

Solution

Let some vertex of a cube be AA and let BB, CC and DD be the opposite vertices of the faces of the cube that AA belongs to (see fig. 9). Then of the vertices BB, CC and DD any two are also the opposite vertices of some face of the cube. Therefore any two of the chosen four vertices are at the distance of a face diagonal of the cube. Therefore any three form an equilateral rather than a right triangle.

Let us now look at the situation where we choose at least 5 vertices. Two opposite faces of the cube include all the vertices of the cube. Therefore at least one of the two opposite faces has to include at least 3 of the chosen vertices. But three vertices of a square form a right triangle.

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