IMO 1970 · Problem 6

In a plane there are 100 points, no three of which are collinear. Consider all possible triangles having these points as vertices. Prove that no more than 70% of these triangles are acute-angled.

Official text of the problem. Official problem paper (PDF)

Solution

Call a triangle non-acute if it has an angle at least \(90^\circ\).

First, any four of the points determine at least one non-acute triangle. Indeed, their convex hull has either four or three vertices:

  • If it has four vertices, it is a convex quadrilateral. Its interior angles sum to \(360^\circ\), so some interior angle is at least \(90^\circ\). The triangle formed by that vertex and its two neighboring vertices is non-acute.
  • If it has three vertices \(A,B,C\), the fourth point \(P\) lies strictly inside triangle \(ABC\), because no three points are collinear. The three angles \(\angle APB,\angle BPC,\angle CPA\) sum to \(360^\circ\), so one is at least \(120^\circ\). Thus one of triangles \(APB,BPC,CPA\) is non-acute.

Next, consider any five of the points, and let \(m\) be the number of non-acute triangles they determine. Each of their five four-point subsets contains a non-acute triangle. Each non-acute triangle belongs to exactly two of these four-point subsets, obtained by adjoining either of the two remaining points. Consequently, \[ 2m\ge 5. \] Since \(m\) is an integer, \(m\ge 3\). Thus every five-point subset contains at least three non-acute triangles.

Now let \(N\) be the total number of non-acute triangles among the 100 points. Count pairs \((T,S)\), where \(S\) is a five-point subset and \(T\) is a non-acute triangle whose vertices belong to \(S\).

Each five-point subset contributes at least three pairs, while each non-acute triangle belongs to exactly \(\binom{97}{2}\) five-point subsets. Hence \[ N\binom{97}{2}\ge 3\binom{100}{5}, \] and therefore \[ N\ge \frac{3\binom{100}{5}}{\binom{97}{2}} =\frac{3}{10}\binom{100}{3}. \] There are \(\binom{100}{3}\) triangles altogether, so the number of acute-angled triangles is at most \[ \binom{100}{3}-N \le \frac{7}{10}\binom{100}{3}. \] This is the required \(70\%\) bound. \(\square\)

The solution was checked against John Scholes' IMO solution archive (Kalva).