Let be a regular hexagon with side 1. Point are on sides and respectively, such that the perimeter of is . Determine .
Lusophon Mathematical Olympiad
Solution
To solve for , we first establish the geometry of the problem. We have a regular hexagon with side length 1. Since it is regular, each interior angle of the hexagon is .
Points and are located on sides and , respectively, with the condition that the perimeter of triangle is 2. We label the distances and . Therefore, the perimeter condition can be written as:
Which simplifies to:
Since we're dealing with a regular hexagon, we place it on the complex plane with center at the origin, such that the vertices have complex coordinates in the form of:
Point can be written as , so point on line segment can be parameterized as:
Similarly, point on segment can be parametrized:
To find , use the argument of complex numbers, as the angle is the argument of the complex number .
Since , to simplify, we can observe geometry properties due to symmetry of hexagon - will form an isosceles triangle with due to interior angles of the hexagon. Using this symmetry, .
However the setup of hexagon and the path of line show half this angle due to triangle placement is:
Thus, the exact .