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XVIII OBM

Brazil geometry

Problem

Does there exist a set of points in the plane such that no three are collinear and the circumcenter of any three points of the set is also in the set?
Solution
No, it's not possible. Let be the set of points. Consider the smallest circumcircle of all triangles determined by the points. Let be three points on and let be its center. If one of the central angles , , is less than then the circumcircle of the correspondent triangle is smaller than . Since the sum of the three central angles is , . The circumcenters of , and are the midpoints of the arcs , , , and then there are six points from on forming a regular hexagon. Take and two of these points and obtain a circumcircle smaller than , which is a contradiction. So there is no such set.

Techniques

Triangle centers: centroid, incenter, circumcenter, Euler line, nine-point circleOptimization in geometryAngle chasing