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C5. Every point with integer coordinates in the plane is the centre of a disc with radius
1/1000.
(1) Prove that there exists an equilateral triangle whose vertices lie in different discs.
(2) Prove that every equilateral triangle with vertices in different discs has side-length
greater than 96.
Solution 1. (1) Define f : Z −→ [0, 1) by f(x) = x
√
3 − bx
√
3c. By the pigeonhole
principle, there exist distinct integers x
1
and x
2
such that
¯
¯
f(x
1
) − f(x
2
)
¯
¯
< 0.001. Put
a = |x
1
−x
2
|. Then the distance either between
¡
a, a
√
3
¢
and
¡
a, ba
√
3c
¢
or between
¡
a, a
√
3
¢
and
¡
a, ba
√
3c + 1
¢
is less than 0.001. Therefore the points (0, 0), (2a, 0),
¡
a, a
√
3
¢
lie in
different discs and form an equilateral triangle.
(2) Supp ose that P
0
Q
0
R
0
is a triangle such that P
0
Q
0
= Q
0
R
0
= R
0
P
0
= l ≤ 96 and P
0
, Q
0
,
R
0
lie in discs with centres P , Q, R, respectively. Then
l −0.002 ≤ P Q, QR, RP ≤ l + 0.002.
Since P QR is not an equilateral triangle, we may assume that P Q 6= QR. Therefore
|P Q
2
− QR
2
| = (P Q + QR)|P Q − QR|
≤
¡
(l + 0.002) + (l + 0.002)
¢¡
(l + 0.002) − (l −0.002)
¢
≤ 2 · 96.002 · 0.004
< 1.
However, P Q
2
− QR
2
∈ Z. This is a contradiction.
Solution 2. We give another solution to (2).
Lemma. Suppose that ABC and A
0
B
0
C
0
are equilateral triangles and that A, B, C and
A
0
, B
0
, C
0
lie anticlockwise. If AA
0
, BB
0
≤ r, then CC
0
≤ 2r.
Proof. Let α, β, γ; α
0
, β
0
, γ
0
be the complex numbers corresponding to A, B, C; A
0
, B
0
,
C
0
. Then
γ = ωβ + (1 − ω)α and γ
0
= ωβ
0
+ (1 − ω)α
0
,
where ω =
¡
1 +
√
3 i
¢
/2. Therefore
CC
0
= |γ − γ
0
| =
¯
¯
ω(β − β
0
) + (1 − ω)(α − α
0
)
¯
¯
≤ |ω||β −β
0
| + |1 − ω||α − α
0
| = BB
0
+ AA
0
≤ 2r.