More fun in 2015, Part 20

Geometry Level 5

Inscribe a regular 2015-gon P P into a circle of radius 1. Draw chords from one of the vertices of P P to all the other vertices. Find the product of the lengths of these 2014 chords.


Image Credit: Flickr Brett Virmalo .


The answer is 2015.

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2 solutions

Alan Yan
Oct 14, 2015

We will use complex numbers. WLOG, let the vertex which you are drawing chords from be 1 1 . Let ω = e 2 π 2015 i \omega = e^{\frac{2\pi}{2015}i} , that is, the primitive 2015th root of unity. We will define a polynomial P ( x ) = x 2014 + x 2013 + . . . + x + 1 = ( x ω ) ( x ω 2 ) . . . ( x ω 2014 ) P(x) = x^{2014} + x^{2013} + ... + x + 1 = (x - \omega)(x - \omega^2)...(x - \omega^{2014}) Thus, the product of the chords is just 1 ω 1 ω 2 . . . 1 ω 2014 = P ( 1 ) = 2015 |1 - \omega| \cdot |1 - \omega^2| \cdot ... \cdot |1 - \omega^{2014}| = |P(1)| = \boxed{2015}

We can generalize this to an n n -gon and we will see that the product is just n n .

Yes, exactly (upvote)! A simple problem, but a nice application of roots of unity.

Otto Bretscher - 5 years, 8 months ago

May be 2015 gon is too much to think of ,so let's look at the triangle first. The triangle that inscribe the circle that has radius = 1 has side's length = √3 so the product of chords that draw from one vertice = √3×√3 = 3 The square that inscribe the circle radius=1 has side's lenht =√2 , diagonal leght =2 so the product of chords that draw from one vertice = √2×√2×2 = 4 And for the Pentagon product = 1×√5×√5×1 = 5 So 2015 gon = 2015

My method exactly, but is there a way to prove this? (i.e. when a regular n n -gon is inscribed in the unit circle, the product of the lengths of the chords from one vertex to all the other vertices equals n n )

Tai Ching Kan - 5 years, 6 months ago

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