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Geometry Difficulty 6.6 National olympiad Find the answer

59. (USS 6) On the circle with center OO and radius 1 the point A0A_{0} is fixed and points A1,A2,,A999,A1000A_{1}, A_{2}, \ldots, A_{999}, A_{1000} are distributed in such a way that A0OAk=k\angle A_{0} O A_{k}=k (in radians). Cut the circle at points A0,A1,,A1000A_{0}, A_{1}, \ldots, A_{1000}. How many arcs with different lengths are obtained? ### 3.10 The Tenth IMO

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Solution

59. By the arcAB\operatorname{arc} A B we shall always mean the positive arcAB\operatorname{arc} A B. We denote by AB|A B| the length of arc ABA B. Let a basic arc be one of the n+1n+1 arcs into which the circle is partitioned by the points A0,A1,,AnA_{0}, A_{1}, \ldots, A_{n}, where nNn \in \mathbb{N}. Suppose that ApA0A_{p} A_{0} and A0AqA_{0} A_{q} are the basic arcs with an endpoint at A0A_{0}, and that xn,ynx_{n}, y_{n} are their lengths, respectively. We show by induction on nn that for each nn the length of a basic arc is equal to xn,ynx_{n}, y_{n} or xn+ynx_{n}+y_{n}. The statement is trivial for n=1n=1. Assume that it holds for nn, and let AiAn+1,An+1AjA_{i} A_{n+1}, A_{n+1} A_{j} be basic arcs. We shall prove that these two arcs have lengths xn,ynx_{n}, y_{n}, or xn+ynx_{n}+y_{n}. If i,ji, j are both strictly positive, then AiAn+1=\left|A_{i} A_{n+1}\right|= Ai1An\left|A_{i-1} A_{n}\right| and An+1Aj=AnAj1\left|A_{n+1} A_{j}\right|=\left|A_{n} A_{j-1}\right| are equal to xn,ynx_{n}, y_{n}, or xn+ynx_{n}+y_{n} by the inductive hypothesis. Let us assume now that i=0i=0, i.e., that ApAn+1A_{p} A_{n+1} and An+1A0A_{n+1} A_{0} are basic arcs. Then ApAn+1=A0An+1pA0Aq=yn\left|A_{p} A_{n+1}\right|=\left|A_{0} A_{n+1-p}\right| \geq\left|A_{0} A_{q}\right|=y_{n} and similarly An+1Aqxn\left|A_{n+1} A_{q}\right| \geq x_{n}, but ApAq=xn+yn\left|A_{p} A_{q}\right|=x_{n}+y_{n}, from which it follows that ApAn+1=A0Aq=yn\left|A_{p} A_{n+1}\right|=\left|A_{0} A_{q}\right|=y_{n} and consequently n+1=p+qn+1=p+q. Also, xn+1=An+1A0=ynxnx_{n+1}=\left|A_{n+1} A_{0}\right|=y_{n}-x_{n} and yn+1=yny_{n+1}=y_{n}. Now, all basic arcs have lengths ynxn,xn,yn,xn+yny_{n}-x_{n}, x_{n}, y_{n}, x_{n}+y_{n}. A presence of a basic arc of length xn+ynx_{n}+y_{n} would spoil our inductive step. However, if any basic arc AkAlA_{k} A_{l} has length xn+ynx_{n}+y_{n}, then we must have lq=kpl-q=k-p because 2π2 \pi is irrational, and therefore the arc AkAlA_{k} A_{l} contains either the point AkpA_{k-p} (if kpk \geq p ) or the point Ak+qA_{k+q} (if k1 \\ \left(p_{k}, p_{k}+q_{k}\right), \text { if }\left\{p_{k} /(2 \pi)\right\}+\left\{q_{k} /(2 \pi)\right\}<1 \end{array}\right. Itisnow"easy"tocalculatethat It is now "easy" to calculate that p_{19}=p_{20}=333, q_{19}=377, q_{20}=710,andthus, and thus n_{19}=709<1000<1042=n_{20}.Itfollowsthatthelengthsofthebasicarcsfor. It follows that the lengths of the basic arcs for n=1000$ take exactly three different values.

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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.