Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /403 of 740

, 2019

Geometry Difficulty 5.0 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:

A positive integer nn is infallible if it is possible to select nn vertices of a regular 100-gon so that they form a convex, non-self-intersecting nn-gon having all equal angles. Find the sum of all infallible integers nn between 3 and 100, inclusive.

Solution

Solution:

Suppose A1A2AnA_{1} A_{2} \ldots A_{n} is an equiangular nn-gon formed from the vertices of a regular 100-gon. Note that the angle A1A2A3\angle A_{1} A_{2} A_{3} is determined only by the number of vertices of the 100-gon between A1A_{1} and A3A_{3}. Thus in order for A1A2AnA_{1} A_{2} \ldots A_{n} to be equiangular, we require exactly that A1,A3,A_{1}, A_{3}, \ldots are equally spaced and A2,A4,A_{2}, A_{4}, \ldots are equally spaced. If nn is odd, then all the vertices must be equally spaced, meaning n100n \mid 100. If nn is even, we only need to be able to make a regular (n2)\left(\frac{n}{2}\right)-gon from the vertices of a 100-gon, which we can do if n200n \mid 200. Thus the possible values of nn are 4,5,8,10,20,25,40,504, 5, 8, 10, 20, 25, 40, 50, and 100100, for a total of 262262.

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.

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