A taste of affine transformations

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[et_pb_section fb_built="1" _builder_version="3.22.4" fb_built="1" _i="0" _address="0"][et_pb_row _builder_version="3.25" _i="0" _address="0.0"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="3.25" custom_padding="|||" custom_padding__hover="|||" _i="0" _address="0.0.0"][et_pb_text _builder_version="3.22.4" text_font="Raleway|300|||||||" text_text_color="#ffffff" header_font="Raleway|300|||||||" header_text_color="#e2e2e2" background_color="#0c71c3" border_radii="on|5px|5px|5px|5px" box_shadow_style="preset3" custom_padding="20px|20px|20px|20px" _i="0" _address="0.0.0.0"]

Understand the problem

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version="3.22.4" text_font="Raleway||||||||" background_color="#f4f4f4" box_shadow_style="preset2" custom_margin="10px||10px" custom_padding="10px|20px|10px|20px" _i="1" _address="0.0.0.1"]Let $A(XYZ)$ be the area of the triangle $XYZ$. A non-regular convex polygon $P_1 P_2 \ldots P_n$ is called guayaco if exists a point $O$ in its interior such that\[A(P_1OP_2) = A(P_2OP_3) = \cdots = A(P_nOP_1).\]Show that, for every integer $n \ge 3$, a guayaco polygon of $n$ sides exists.

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Cono sur olympiad 2017 [/et_pb_accordion_item][et_pb_accordion_item title="Topic" _builder_version="3.27" _i="1" _address="0.1.0.0.1" open="off" hover_enabled="0"]Geometry [/et_pb_accordion_item][et_pb_accordion_item title="Difficulty Level" _builder_version="3.27" _i="2" _address="0.1.0.0.2" open="off" hover_enabled="0"]Easy [/et_pb_accordion_item][et_pb_accordion_item title="Suggested Book" _builder_version="3.27" _i="3" _address="0.1.0.0.3" open="off" hover_enabled="0"]Problem Solving Strategies by Arthur Engel. [/et_pb_accordion_item][/et_pb_accordion][et_pb_text _builder_version="3.22.4" text_font="Raleway|300|||||||" text_text_color="#ffffff" header_font="Raleway|300|||||||" header_text_color="#e2e2e2" background_color="#0c71c3" border_radii="on|5px|5px|5px|5px" box_shadow_style="preset3" custom_margin="48px||48px" custom_padding="20px|20px|20px|20px" _i="1" _address="0.1.0.1"]

Start with hints

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[/et_pb_tab][et_pb_tab title="Hint 1" _builder_version="3.27" _i="1" _address="0.1.0.2.1" hover_enabled="0"]A regular polygon is obviously guayaco. As regular polygons are not allowed, we should try to "perturb" the polygon a little bit, preserving the areas. [/et_pb_tab][et_pb_tab title="Hint 2" _builder_version="3.27" _i="2" _address="0.1.0.2.2" hover_enabled="0"]Let us look at transformations of the plane of the form $latex (x,y)\mapsto (ax+by,cx+dy)$. Show that, if $latex |ad-bc|=1$ then this transformation preserves areas. [/et_pb_tab][et_pb_tab title="Hint 3" _builder_version="3.27" _i="3" _address="0.1.0.2.3" hover_enabled="0"]The class of transformations defined in hint 2 are known as area-preserving transformations. Clearly, taking the image of a regular $latex n$-gon under an area-preserving transformation should do the trick. However, there is a caveat. The resulting polygon might become concave.  [/et_pb_tab][et_pb_tab title="Hint 4" _builder_version="3.27" _i="4" _address="0.1.0.2.4" hover_enabled="0"]To ensure that the resulting polygon remains convex, it suffices to take an area-preserving map close to the identity. Use $latex a=f(n),b=c=0,d=1/f(n)$ where $latex f(n)$ is a number dependent on $latex n$. The larger the value of $latex n$, the smaller $latex |1-f(n)|$ should be. [/et_pb_tab][/et_pb_tabs][et_pb_text _builder_version="3.26.4" text_font="Raleway|300|||||||" text_text_color="#ffffff" header_font="Raleway|300|||||||" header_text_color="#e2e2e2" background_color="#0c71c3" border_radii="on|5px|5px|5px|5px" box_shadow_style="preset3" custom_margin="48px||48px" custom_padding="20px|20px|20px|20px" _i="3" _address="0.1.0.3"]

Watch video

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Connected Program at Cheenta

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Similar Problems

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