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Geometry Difficulty 7.9 National olympiad, round 2 Find the answer

Find all integers n3n\geq 3 such that there exists a convex nn-gon A1A2AnA_1A_2\dots A_n which satisfies the following conditions:
- All interior angles of the polygon are equal
- Not all sides of the polygon are equal
- There exists a triangle TT and a point OO inside the polygon such that the nn triangles OA1A2, OA2A3, , OAn1An, OAnA1OA_1A_2,\ OA_2A_3,\ \dots,\ OA_{n-1}A_n,\ OA_nA_1 are all similar to TT, not necessarily in the same vertex order.

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

Solution

To solve the problem, we need to find all integers n3 n \geq 3 such that there exists a convex n n -gon A1A2An A_1A_2 \dots A_n with the following properties:
1. All interior angles of the polygon are equal.
2. Not all sides of the polygon are equal.
3. There exists a triangle T T and a point O O inside the polygon such that the n n triangles OA1A2,OA2A3,,OAn1An,OAnA1 OA_1A_2, OA_2A_3, \dots, OA_{n-1}A_n, OA_nA_1 are all similar to T T , not necessarily in the same vertex order.

We will proceed by proving several claims and using them to determine the possible values of n n .

1. **Claim 1: The interior angle bisectors of A1A2A3An A_1A_2A_3 \dots A_n cannot concur at a point.

Proof:**
Since the polygon is equiangular, if all of these angle bisectors concurred at P P , then we would have:
PAiAi+1=PAi+1Ai    PAi=PAi+1 \angle PA_iA_{i+1} = \angle PA_{i+1}A_i \implies PA_i = PA_{i+1}
This implies that all the triangles PAiAi+1 \triangle PA_iA_{i+1} are congruent, so all the sides AiAi+1 A_iA_{i+1} are equal, which contradicts the condition that not all sides are equal.
\blacksquare

2. **Claim 2: One of the angles of T T is 360n \frac{360^\circ}{n} .

Proof:**
From Claim 1, we note that for some i i , we must have OAiAi1OAiAi+1 \angle OA_iA_{i-1} \neq \angle OA_iA_{i+1} , meaning that these two angles must be angles in T T . Therefore, the last angle is the exterior angle of the original polygon, which is 360n \frac{360^\circ}{n} , as desired.
\blacksquare

Let the angles of T T be γ=360n \gamma = \frac{360^\circ}{n} , α \alpha , and β \beta .

3. **Claim 3: We cannot have AiOAi+1=γ \angle A_iOA_{i+1} = \gamma for all i i .

Proof:**
Suppose this were the case. Then, we would have:
OA1A2=180γOA2A1=180γ(180γOA2A3)=OA2A3 \angle OA_1A_2 = 180^\circ - \gamma - \angle OA_2A_1 = 180^\circ - \gamma - (180^\circ - \gamma - \angle OA_2A_3) = \angle OA_2A_3
Continuing in this line, we would have:
OA1A2=OA2A3=OA3A4==OAnA1 \angle OA_1A_2 = \angle OA_2A_3 = \angle OA_3A_4 = \dots = \angle OA_nA_1
Combining this with the original assumption gives that OA1A2OA2A3OAnA1 \triangle OA_1A_2 \sim \triangle OA_2A_3 \sim \dots \sim \triangle OA_nA_1 , where the orientation is in vertex order. However, this yields:
1=OA2OA1OA3OA2OA1OAn=(OA2OA1)n    OA1=OA2    OA1=OA2=OA3==OAn 1 = \frac{OA_2}{OA_1} \cdot \frac{OA_3}{OA_2} \cdot \dots \cdot \frac{OA_1}{OA_n} = \left( \frac{OA_2}{OA_1} \right)^n \implies OA_1 = OA_2 \implies OA_1 = OA_2 = OA_3 = \dots = OA_n
This means that the similar triangles are actually congruent, so the sides are all equal, which is a contradiction.
\blacksquare

This means that we must replace some of the γ \gamma 's in the center (AiOAi+1 \angle A_iOA_{i+1} 's) with α \alpha 's and β \beta 's. However, since all n n of the γ \gamma 's snugly fit in 360 360^\circ of space, we cannot replace the γ \gamma 's with anything bigger (without adding smaller angles). This means that we cannot have γα,β \gamma \leq \alpha, \beta .

4. **Claim 4: We must have n6 n \leq 6 .

Proof:**
Suppose that n>6 n > 6 . This means that γ=360n<60 \gamma = \frac{360^\circ}{n} < 60^\circ , meaning that we cannot have γα,β \gamma \geq \alpha, \beta (since they all sum to 180 180^\circ ). Combining this with the previous inequality gives that one of α,β \alpha, \beta is smaller than γ \gamma , and the other is larger. Without loss of generality, suppose we have α<γ<β \alpha < \gamma < \beta .

From Claim 3, we cannot have all of the γ \gamma 's in the center, so at least one γ \gamma -measured angle is on the perimeter. Without loss of generality, let OAiAi+1=γ \angle OA_iA_{i+1} = \gamma . Now, note that:
OAiAi+1=180γOAiAi+1=1802γ=α+βγ \angle OA_iA_{i+1} = 180^\circ - \gamma - \angle OA_iA_{i+1} = 180^\circ - 2\gamma = \alpha + \beta - \gamma
Note that this cannot be equal to α \alpha or β \beta , since α<γ<β \alpha < \gamma < \beta . Therefore, we must have:
OAiAi+1=γ=1802γ    γ=60    n=6 \angle OA_iA_{i+1} = \gamma = 180^\circ - 2\gamma \implies \gamma = 60^\circ \implies n = 6
This is a contradiction.
\blacksquare

From here, we eliminate the smaller cases:
- For n=3 n = 3 : An equiangular triangle must be an equilateral triangle.
- For n=4 n = 4 : Note that A1A2A3A4 A_1A_2A_3A_4 is a rectangle, and γ=90 \gamma = 90^\circ . However, these γ \gamma 's cannot appear on the edge of the polygon (i.e., OAiAi±1=90 \angle OA_iA_{i\pm 1} = 90^\circ ), since the interior angle is also 90 90^\circ . This means AiOAi+1=γ \angle A_iOA_{i+1} = \gamma for all i i , contradicting Claim 3.
- For n=5 n = 5 : Note that γ=72 \gamma = 72^\circ . Without loss of generality, from Claim 3, suppose we have OA1A2=72 \angle OA_1A_2 = 72^\circ , meaning that OA1A4=36 \angle OA_1A_4 = 36^\circ . Therefore, we have that {α,β}={36,72} \{\alpha, \beta\} = \{36^\circ, 72^\circ\} . However, the only way to combine 5 of these angles to get a total of 360 360^\circ in the center is to use five 72 72^\circ angles, contradicting Claim 3.

A family of constructions for n=6 n = 6 is listed below, for α+β=120 \alpha + \beta = 120^\circ and αβ \alpha \neq \beta (verification is not difficult with the Law of Sines):
(OA1,OA2,OA3,OA4,OA5,OA6)=(sinα,23sin2α,sinα,sinβ,23sin2β,sinβ) (OA_1, OA_2, OA_3, OA_4, OA_5, OA_6) = \left( \sin \alpha, \frac{2}{\sqrt{3}} \sin^2 \alpha, \sin \alpha, \sin \beta, \frac{2}{\sqrt{3}} \sin^2 \beta, \sin \beta \right)
(A1OA2,A2OA3,A3OA4,A4OA5,A5OA6,A6OA1)=(β,β,60,α,α,60) (\angle A_1OA_2, \angle A_2OA_3, \angle A_3OA_4, \angle A_4OA_5, \angle A_5OA_6, \angle A_6OA_1) = (\beta, \beta, 60^\circ, \alpha, \alpha, 60^\circ)

The final answer is n=6 \boxed{ n = 6 } .

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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.