35 *. Given a convex polygon M such that the lengths of all its sides and diagonals are integers. K is a given square. Prove that there is a finite set of polygons congruent to M such that their union contains K and any point of the square not lying on the side of one of the polygons is covered by the same number of polygons from this set.
Comment. In 1978, the city round of the Olympiad was held in writing, unlike previous years. The winners of this round participated in the final (oral) round of the Olympiad, based on the results of which the awarding of diplomas was carried out, as well as the team of Leningrad for the All-Union Olympiad was selected.
Solution
78.35. Let us position the polygon so that one of its vertices A1 is at the origin, and the side A1A2 lies along the x-axis (see Fig. 52). Since all the lengths of the diagonals and sides are rational, the cosines of the angles AkA1Al are also rational. Therefore, since cos(α−β)=cosαcosβ+sinαsinβ, all the sines of the angles AkA1A2 are rational multiples of some fixed number t. Consequently, we can assume that all points A1,A2,…,An lie at the nodes of a rectangular grid with a horizontal step of 1 and a vertical step of h, as we can transition from rational coordinates to integer coordinates using homothety. Next, consider all polygons obtained from M by parallel translation A1P, where P is any node of the grid, as well as all polygons obtained from the polygon M′, which is centrally symmetric to M with respect to the origin, by the same translations. Then the set of such polygons intersecting the square K will provide the required covering, as it includes, along with any polygon N with a side XY intersecting K, the polygon N centrally symmetric to N with respect to the midpoint of the segment XY. Therefore, the multiplicity of the covering does not change when crossing the side XY, which is what we needed to prove. (The solution was provided by Φ.L L. Nazarov.)
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