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Geometry Difficulty 7.3 National olympiad, round 2 Find the answer

We consider dissections of regular nn-gons into n2n - 2 triangles by n3n - 3 diagonals which do not intersect inside the nn-gon. A bicoloured triangulation is such a dissection of an nn-gon in which each triangle is coloured black or white and any two triangles which share an edge have different colours. We call a positive integer n4n \ge 4 triangulable if every regular nn-gon has a bicoloured triangulation such that for each vertex AA of the nn-gon the number of black triangles of which AA is a vertex is greater than the number of white triangles of which AA is a vertex.

Find all triangulable numbers.

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

Solution

To solve the problem, we need to determine which positive integers n4 n \ge 4 allow a regular n n -gon to be dissected into a bicoloured triangulation under the condition that, for each vertex A A , the number of black triangles having A A as a vertex is greater than the number of white triangles having A A as a vertex.

### Step-by-step analysis

1. Understanding the colours and conditions:
- In a bicoloured triangulation, each pair of triangles sharing an edge must be of different colours.
- For a vertex A A , the triangles sharing this vertex must fulfill the condition: more black triangles than white triangles.

2. Dissection characteristics:
- A regular n n -gon will be divided into n2 n-2 triangles using n3 n-3 diagonals.
- Since this is a bicoloured map, it implies a need for an alternating colour scheme.

3. Analyzing potential triangulable numbers:
- The colouring condition implies that for each vertex, the degree of connection, i.e., the number of triangles connected to it, should support this alternating pattern with more black triangles.
- This essentially translates to each vertex being part of a number of triangles that is odd, so as to favour a greater number of one colour.

4. Examining divisibility by 3:
- If n n is divisible by 3, we can construct an n n -gon such that each vertex is connected to a number of triangles conducive to having more black triangles, as follows:
- Divide the entire n n -gon into smaller sections or paths with exactly 3 connections or nodes, enabling cyclic colour breaking.

5. Proving the necessity:
- Suppose n n is not divisible by 3. Then attempting to uniformly distribute the triangles such that any vertex is part of more black than white becomes impossible without violating the bicolouring property.

6. Conclusion:
- The requirement translates to ensuring each vertex in the cyclic arrangement along the perimeter plays into alternating triangle counts.
- Therefore, only when n n is divisible by 3 can these conditions hold consistently for each vertex.

Thus, for a positive integer n4 n \geq 4 to be triangulable, it must satisfy:

3n 3 \mid n

Conclusively, the set of triangulable numbers are those that are multiples of 3, starting from 6. Hence, the triangulable numbers are:

3n \boxed{3 \mid n}

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