Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Carl is given n marked points in the plane and wishes to mark their
centroid1 . He has no standard compass or straightedge. Instead, he has a device which, given marked points
A and B, marks the m − 1 points that divide segment AB into m congruent parts (but does not draw the
segment).
For which pairs (m, n) can Carl necessarily accomplish his task, regardless of which n points he is given?
Solution Path.
Step 1 (1 point). Claim that the answer is all pairs (m, n) for which rad(2n)|m.
Remark 3. Graders may deduct one point at the end for lack of sufficiency if the student does not realize the
subtlety of prime powers and provides a construction that, while showing that some larger number dividing
m will suffice, does not scale down to show that rad(2n)|m is sufficient. For example, if a student claims
that the answer is all pairs (m, n) for which 2n|m, shows that all primes p dividing 2n must divide m, and
gives a construction by which an n-centroid can be marked with a 2n-dissector, this student should receive
5 points, losing one for the wrong answer and one for a flawed construction.
1 Here, x1 +···+xn y1 +···+yn
the centroid of n points with coordinates (x1 , y1 ), . . . , (xn , yn ) is the point with coordinates n
, n
.