Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 4.8 AIME Find the answer

Find the angle of reflection θ\theta such that a ball bounces 2012 times inside a 1×11 \times 1 square before returning to its starting point.

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

Solution

As per usual with reflection problems instead of bouncing off the sides of a 1×11 \times 1 square we imagine the ball to travel in a straight line from origin in an infinite grid of 1×11 \times 1 squares, 'bouncing' every time it meets a line x=mx=m or y=ny=n. Let the lattice point it first meets after leaving the origin be (a,b)(a, b), so that b>ab>a. Note that aa and bb are coprime, otherwise the ball will reach a vertex before the 2012th bounce. We wish to minimize the slope of the line to this point from origin, which is b/ab / a. Now, the number of bounces up to this point is a1+b1=a+b2a-1+b-1=a+b-2, so the given statement is just a+b=2014a+b=2014. To minimize b/ab / a with aa and bb relatively prime, we must have a=1005,b=1009a=1005, b=1009, so that the angle is tan1(10091005)\tan^{-1}\left(\frac{1009}{1005}\right)

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Source: Omni-MATH, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.