Olympiad Maths Prep

Track / Stage 7 / 127 of 300 #1527 of 2000

Problem 1527

National olympiad second round; IMO P1/P4
Combinatorics Difficulty 7.2 Prove it

Let n16n\ge 16 be an integer, and consider the set of n2n^2 points in the plane: G={(x,y)x,y{1,2,,n}}. G=\big\{(x,y)\mid x,y\in\{1,2,\ldots,n\}\big\}. Let AA be a subset of GG with at least 4nn4n\sqrt{n} elements. Prove that there are at least n2n^2 convex quadrilaterals whose vertices are in AA and all of whose diagonals pass through a fixed point.

This one wants a proof. Work it on paper, read the official solution, then mark yourself honestly — the ladder only means something if the record is true.

Official solution

1. **Define the set G G and subset A A :**
- The set G G consists of n2 n^2 points in the plane:
G={(x,y)x,y{1,2,,n}} G = \{(x, y) \mid x, y \in \{1, 2, \ldots, n\}\}
- The subset A A is a subset of G G with at least 4nn 4n\sqrt{n} elements.

2. Objective:
- We need to prove that there are at least n2 n^2 convex quadrilaterals whose vertices are in A A and all of whose diagonals pass through a fixed point.

3. Finding line segments with a common midpoint:
- Consider the number of possible line segments with endpoints in A A . The number of such segments is given by:
(A2)(4nn2) \binom{|A|}{2} \ge \binom{4n\sqrt{n}}{2}
- Using the binomial coefficient approximation for large n n :
(4nn2)=4nn(4nn1)28n32n3/2 \binom{4n\sqrt{n}}{2} = \frac{4n\sqrt{n}(4n\sqrt{n} - 1)}{2} \approx 8n^3 - 2n^{3/2}

4. Possible midpoints:
- Each line segment has a midpoint, and the number of possible midpoints is less than 4n2 4n^2 because there are n2 n^2 points in G G and each point can be a midpoint of a segment.

5. Applying the pigeonhole principle:
- Since there are 8n32n3/2 8n^3 - 2n^{3/2} possible segments and fewer than 4n2 4n^2 possible midpoints, by the pigeonhole principle, there must be at least one midpoint that is the midpoint of at least:
8n32n3/24n2=2nn3/22n2=2n12n \frac{8n^3 - 2n^{3/2}}{4n^2} = 2n - \frac{n^{3/2}}{2n^2} = 2n - \frac{1}{2n}
line segments. For large n n , this is approximately 2n 2n line segments.

6. Forming parallelograms:
- We have found at least 2n 2n line segments with a common midpoint. Any pair of these segments can form the diagonals of a parallelogram. The number of ways to choose 2 segments from 2n 2n segments is:
(2n2)=2n(2n1)2=2n2n \binom{2n}{2} = \frac{2n(2n - 1)}{2} = 2n^2 - n
- Since 2n2nn2 2n^2 - n \ge n^2 for n1 n \ge 1 , we have at least n2 n^2 parallelograms.

7. Conclusion:
- Therefore, there are at least n2 n^2 convex quadrilaterals (parallelograms) whose vertices are in A A and all of whose diagonals pass through a fixed point.

\blacksquare

Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic, difficulty and ordering added by this site.