Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.0 National olympiad Prove it

13. Place several points on the unit sphere such that the distance between any two points is (1) at least 2\sqrt{2}; (2) greater than 2\sqrt{2}. Determine the maximum number of points and prove your conclusion.

Solution

13. (1) The maximum number of points is 6. If AA is one of these points, let's assume AA is at the North Pole, then the remaining points must all be in the Southern Hemisphere (including the equator). If there is only one point BB at the South Pole, then the rest of the points are all on the equator, in which case there are at most 2+4=62+4=6 points.

If there is no point at the South Pole, it can be proven that the number of points does not exceed 5. Otherwise, there would be at least 5 points A1A_{1}, A2,,A5A_{2}, \cdots, A_{5} in the Southern Hemisphere (including the equator). Let AA^{\prime} be the South Pole, and the arcs AA1(i=1,2,,5)A^{\prime} A_{1}(i=1,2, \cdots, 5) intersect the equator at A1A_{1}^{\prime}. Then, among A1AAj(1ij5)\angle A_{1}^{\prime} A^{\prime} A_{\mathrm{j}}^{\prime}(1 \leqslant i \neq j \leqslant 5), at least one angle is less than or equal to 7272^{\circ}. Suppose A1AA272\angle A_{1}^{\prime} A^{\prime} A_{2}^{\prime} \leqslant 72^{\circ}, then in the spherical triangle A1AA2\triangle A_{1}^{\prime} A^{\prime} A_{2}^{\prime}, the distance between any two points is less than 2\sqrt{2}, which is a contradiction. Therefore, the maximum number of points on the sphere is 6. (2) The maximum number of points is 4. The proof is similar to (1).

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