GeometryDifficulty 6.5National olympiadFind the answer
Show that it is impossible to find a triangle in the plane with all integer coordinates such that the lengths of the sides are all odd.
Solution
1. Let the vertices of the triangle be (0,0), (a,b), and (c,d), where a,b,c,d are integers. 2. The lengths of the sides of the triangle are given by: Length1=a2+b2 Length2=c2+d2 Length3=(a−c)2+(b−d)2 3. For all sides to be odd, the squares of the lengths must be congruent to 1 modulo 4. Therefore, we have: a2+b2≡1(mod4) c2+d2≡1(mod4) (a−c)2+(b−d)2≡1(mod4) 4. Consider the possible values of a2 and b2 modulo 4. Since a and b are integers, a2 and b2 can be 0 or 1 modulo 4: a2≡0 or 1(mod4) b2≡0 or 1(mod4) 5. To satisfy a2+b2≡1(mod4), the possible combinations are: (a2,b2)≡(0,1) or (1,0)(mod4) 6. Similarly, for c2+d2≡1(mod4), the possible combinations are: (c2,d2)≡(0,1) or (1,0)(mod4) 7. Now consider the expression (a−c)2+(b−d)2: (a−c)2+(b−d)2=a2+c2−2ac+b2+d2−2bd ≡(a2+b2)+(c2+d2)−2(ac+bd)(mod4) 8. Since a2+b2≡1(mod4) and c2+d2≡1(mod4), we have: (a2+b2)+(c2+d2)≡1+1≡2(mod4) 9. Therefore: (a−c)2+(b−d)2≡2−2(ac+bd)(mod4) 10. For (a−c)2+(b−d)2 to be congruent to 1 modulo 4, we need: 2−2(ac+bd)≡1(mod4) 11. This simplifies to: 2≡1+2(ac+bd)(mod4) 1≡2(ac+bd)(mod4) 12. Since 2(ac+bd) is always even, it can only be 0 or 2 modulo 4. Therefore, 2(ac+bd)≡0 or 2(mod4), which means: 1≡0 or 2(mod4) 13. This is a contradiction because 1 is not congruent to 0 or 2 modulo 4. Therefore, it is impossible to find such a triangle with all integer coordinates and all sides of odd length.
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