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Geometry Difficulty 6.5 National olympiad Prove it

A set of points is marked on the plane, with the property that any three marked points can be covered with a disk of radius 1. Prove that the set of all marked points can be covered with a disk of radius 1.

Solutions — 2

Solution 1

(For a finite set of points only.) Let DD be a disk of smallest radius that covers all marked points. Consider the marked points on the boundary CC of this disk. Note that if all marked points on CC lie on an arc smaller than the half circle (ASTTHC for short), then the disk can be moved a little towards these points on the boundary and its radius can be decreased. Since we assumed that our disk has minimal radius, the marked points on its boundary do not lie on an ASTTHC.

If the two endpoints of a diagonal of DD are marked, then DD is the smallest disk containing these two points, hence must have radius at most 1.

If there are 3 marked points on CC that do not lie on an ASTTHC, then DD is the smallest disk covering these 3 points and hence must have radius at most 1. (In this case the triangle formed by the three points is acute and CC is its circumcircle.)

If there are more than 3 marked points on the boundary that do not lie on an ASTTHC, then we can remove one of them so that the remaining points again do not lie on an ASTTHC. By induction this leads us to the case of 3 points. Indeed, given 4 or more points on CC, choose 3 points that lie on a half circle. Then the middle point can be removed.

Solution 2

1. Define Notations and Assumptions:
- Let (XYZ)(XYZ) denote the circumcircle of XYZ\triangle XYZ.
- Let (XY)(XY) denote the circle with diameter XYXY.
- Let r(C)r(\mathcal{C}) denote the radius of a disc/circle C\mathcal{C}.
- Let d(XYZ)d(XYZ) denote the radius of the smallest disc containing points X,Y,ZX, Y, Z.

We may assume without loss of generality (WLOG) that the points are in a convex position. If a point lies inside some triangle, we can ignore that point.

2. Lemma:
d(ABC)={r(ABC)if ABC is non-obtusemax{r(BC),r(CA),r(AB)}if ABC is obtuse d(ABC) = \begin{cases} r(ABC) & \text{if } \triangle ABC \text{ is non-obtuse} \\ \max\{r(BC), r(CA), r(AB)\} & \text{if } \triangle ABC \text{ is obtuse} \end{cases}
Proof: Omitted. \square

3. Choose Points and Define Disc:
- Pick three points A,B,CA, B, C such that d(ABC)d(ABC) is the maximum possible.
- Let D\mathcal{D} denote the disc covering A,B,CA, B, C.
- We will show that D\mathcal{D} covers all other points.

4. **Assume a Point Outside D\mathcal{D}:**
- Assume, for contradiction, that some point XX lies outside D\mathcal{D}.

5. **Case 1: ABC\triangle ABC is Non-Obtuse:**
- Then d(ABC)=r(ABC)d(ABC) = r(ABC).
- Points A,B,C,XA, B, C, X are in convex position. WLOG, assume XX lies in the region formed by rays ABAB and ACAC.
- Let AA' be the antipode of AA with respect to (ABC)(ABC).
- If both XBA\angle XBA and XCA\angle XCA are >90>90^\circ, then AX>AAAX > AA'. This implies:
d(AXB)r(AX)>r(AA)=d(ABC) d(AXB) \ge r(AX) > r(AA') = d(ABC)
which contradicts the maximality of d(ABC)d(ABC).
- So, at least one of the angles XBA\angle XBA or XCA\angle XCA is 90\le 90^\circ. WLOG, assume:
XCA90 \angle XCA \le 90^\circ
- Now, XCA\triangle XCA is non-obtuse and:
AXC<ABC90 \angle AXC < \angle ABC \le 90^\circ
- By the Sine Rule, it follows:
d(AXC)=r(AXC)>r(ABC)=d(ABC) d(AXC) = r(AXC) > r(ABC) = d(ABC)
which is a contradiction.

6. **Case 2: ABC\triangle ABC is Obtuse:**
- WLOG, assume C90\angle C \ge 90^\circ. Then:
d(ABC)=r(AB) d(ABC) = r(AB)
- From the Lemma, it is not hard to see that:
d(ABX)r(AB) d(ABX) \ge r(AB)
with equality iff X(AB)X \in (AB). Since XX lies outside (AB)(AB), we directly obtain our desired contradiction.

This completes the proof of the problem. \blacksquare

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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.