Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /275 of 520

Geometry Difficulty 7.0 National olympiad Find the answer

Let CC be the unit circle x2+y2=1.x^{2}+y^{2}=1 . A point pp is chosen randomly on the circumference CC and another point qq is chosen randomly from the interior of CC (these points are chosen independently and uniformly over their domains). Let RR be the rectangle with sides parallel to the xx and yy-axes with diagonal pq.p q . What is the probability that no point of RR lies outside of C?C ?

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

1. **Define the points p p and q q :**
- Let p=(cosθ,sinθ) p = (\cos \theta, \sin \theta) where θ \theta is uniformly distributed over [0,2π)[0, 2\pi).
- Let q=(rcosϕ,rsinϕ) q = (r \cos \phi, r \sin \phi) where r r is uniformly distributed over [0,1][0, 1] and ϕ \phi is uniformly distributed over [0,2π)[0, 2\pi).

2. **Determine the coordinates of the vertices of the rectangle R R :**
- The rectangle R R has sides parallel to the x x - and y y -axes with diagonal pq pq .
- The vertices of R R are:
(cosθ,sinθ),(rcosϕ,sinθ),(cosθ,rsinϕ),(rcosϕ,rsinϕ) (\cos \theta, \sin \theta), (r \cos \phi, \sin \theta), (\cos \theta, r \sin \phi), (r \cos \phi, r \sin \phi)

3. **Condition for R R to lie inside C C :**
- For R R to lie entirely within the unit circle, all vertices must satisfy the equation x2+y21 x^2 + y^2 \leq 1 .
- The vertices are:
(cosθ,sinθ),(rcosϕ,sinθ),(cosθ,rsinϕ),(rcosϕ,rsinϕ) (\cos \theta, \sin \theta), (r \cos \phi, \sin \theta), (\cos \theta, r \sin \phi), (r \cos \phi, r \sin \phi)
- We need to check the conditions:
(rcosϕ)2+(sinθ)21 (r \cos \phi)^2 + (\sin \theta)^2 \leq 1
(cosθ)2+(rsinϕ)21 (\cos \theta)^2 + (r \sin \phi)^2 \leq 1
(rcosϕ)2+(rsinϕ)21 (r \cos \phi)^2 + (r \sin \phi)^2 \leq 1

4. Simplify the conditions:
- The third condition simplifies to:
r2(cos2ϕ+sin2ϕ)1    r21    r1 r^2 (\cos^2 \phi + \sin^2 \phi) \leq 1 \implies r^2 \leq 1 \implies r \leq 1
This condition is always satisfied since r r is uniformly distributed over [0,1][0, 1].

5. Evaluate the remaining conditions:
- The first condition:
r2cos2ϕ+sin2θ1 r^2 \cos^2 \phi + \sin^2 \theta \leq 1
Since sin2θ1 \sin^2 \theta \leq 1 , this condition is always satisfied for r1 r \leq 1 .

- The second condition:
cos2θ+r2sin2ϕ1 \cos^2 \theta + r^2 \sin^2 \phi \leq 1
Since cos2θ1 \cos^2 \theta \leq 1 , this condition is always satisfied for r1 r \leq 1 .

6. Conclusion:
- Since all conditions are satisfied for r1 r \leq 1 , the probability that no point of R R lies outside of C C is 1.

The final answer is 1\boxed{1}.

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: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.