{
  "index": "1989-A-5",
  "type": "GEO",
  "tag": [
    "GEO",
    "ANA",
    "NT"
  ],
  "difficulty": "",
  "question": "Let $m$ be a positive integer and let $\\mathcal{G}$ be a regular $(2m+1)$-gon\ninscribed in the unit circle. Show that there is a positive constant $A$,\nindependent of $m$, with the following property. For any points $p$ inside\n$\\cal G$ there are two distinct vertices $v_1$ and $v_2$ of $\\cal G$\nsuch that\n\\[\n\\left|\\,|p-v_1| - |p-v_2|\\,\\right| < \\frac1{m} - \\frac{A}{m^3}.\n\\]\nHere $|s-t|$ denotes the distance between the points $s$ and $t$.",
  "solution": "Solution 1. The greatest distance between two vertices of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\) is \\( w=2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{4 m+2}\\right) \\), since these vertices with the center form an isosceles triangle with equal sides of length 1 , with vertex angle \\( 2 \\pi m /(2 m+1) \\) and base angles \\( \\pi /(4 m+2) \\). (See Figure 10.) Hence for any vertices \\( v_{1} \\) and \\( v_{2} \\) of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\), the triangle inequality gives \\( \\left|\\left|p-v_{1}\\right|-\\right| p- \\) \\( v_{2} \\| \\leq\\left|v_{1}-v_{2}\\right| \\leq w \\). Thus the \\( 2 m+1 \\) distances from \\( p \\) to the vertices lie in an interval of length at most \\( w \\). Let the distances be \\( d_{1} \\leq d_{2} \\leq \\cdots \\leq d_{2 m+1} \\). Then \\( \\sum_{i=1}^{2 m}\\left(d_{i+1}-d_{i}\\right)=d_{2 m+1}-d_{1} \\leq w \\), so \\( d_{i+1}-d_{i} \\leq w /(2 m) \\) for some \\( i \\). It remains to show that there exists \\( A>0 \\) independent of \\( m \\) such that \\( w /(2 m)<1 / m-A / m^{3} \\). In fact, the Taylor expansion of \\( \\cos x \\) gives\n\\[\n\\frac{w}{2 m}=\\frac{1}{m}\\left(1-\\frac{\\pi^{2}}{2(4 m+2)^{2}}+o\\left(m^{-2}\\right)\\right)=\\frac{1}{m}-\\frac{\\pi^{2}}{32 m^{3}}+o\\left(m^{-3}\\right)\n\\]\nas \\( m \\rightarrow \\infty \\), so any positive \\( A<\\pi^{2} / 32 \\) will work for all but finitely many \\( m \\). We can shrink \\( A \\) to make \\( w /(2 m)<1 / m-A / m^{3} \\) for those finitely many \\( m \\) too, since \\( w /(2 m)<1 / m \\) for all \\( m \\).\n\nSolution 2. We will prove an asymptotically stronger result, namely that for a regular \\( n \\)-gon \\( \\mathcal{G} \\) inscribed in a unit circle and for any \\( p \\) in the closed unit disc,\nthere exist vertices \\( v_{1}, v_{2} \\) of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\) such that \\( \\left|\\left|p-v_{1}\\right|-\\right| p-v_{2} \\|<\\pi^{2} / n^{2} \\). Center the polygon at \\( (0,0) \\) and rotate to assume that \\( p=(-r, 0) \\) with \\( 0 \\leq r \\leq 1 \\). Let the two vertices of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\) closest to \\( (1,0) \\) be \\( v_{i}=\\left(\\cos \\theta_{i}, \\sin \\theta_{i}\\right) \\) for \\( i=1,2 \\) where \\( \\theta_{1} \\leq 0 \\leq \\theta_{2} \\) and \\( \\theta_{2}=\\theta_{1}+2 \\pi / n \\). Then\n\\[\n\\| p-v_{1}\\left|-\\left|p-v_{2}\\right|\\right|=\\left|f_{r}\\left(\\theta_{1}\\right)-f_{r}\\left(\\theta_{2}\\right)\\right|,\n\\]\n\\[\nf_{r}(\\theta)=|(-r, 0)-(\\cos \\theta, \\sin \\theta)|=\\sqrt{r^{2}+2 r \\cos \\theta+1} .\n\\]\n\nReflecting if necessary, we may assume \\( f_{r}\\left(\\theta_{1}\\right) \\geq f_{r}\\left(\\theta_{2}\\right) \\). A short calculation (for example using differentiation) shows that \\( f_{r}(\\theta) \\) is decreasing on \\( [0, \\pi] \\) and increasing on \\( [-\\pi, 0] \\). Thus for fixed \\( r, f_{r}\\left(\\theta_{1}\\right)-f_{r}\\left(\\theta_{2}\\right) \\) is maximized when \\( \\theta_{1}=0 \\) and \\( \\theta_{2}=2 \\pi / n \\). Next we claim that \\( f_{r}(0)-f_{r}(2 \\pi / n) \\) is increasing with \\( r \\), hence maximized at \\( r=1 \\) : this is because if \\( v_{2}^{\\prime} \\) is the point on line segment \\( \\overline{p v_{1}} \\) with \\( \\left|p-v_{2}\\right|=\\left|p-v_{2}^{\\prime}\\right| \\), then as \\( r \\) increases, angle \\( v_{2} p v_{2}^{\\prime} \\) of the isosceles triangle shrinks, making angle \\( v_{2} v_{2}^{\\prime} p \\) grow, putting \\( v_{2}^{\\prime} \\) farther from \\( v_{1} \\), and \\( f_{r}(0)-f_{r}(2 \\pi / n)=\\left|v_{2}^{\\prime}-v_{1}\\right| \\). See Figure 11. Hence\n\\[\n\\| p-v_{1}\\left|-\\left|p-v_{0}\\right| \\leq f_{1}(0)-f_{1}\\left(\\frac{2 \\pi}{n}\\right)=2-2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{n}\\right)<\\frac{\\pi^{2}}{n^{2}}\\right.\n\\]\nsince \\( f_{1}(\\theta)=2 \\cos (\\theta / 2) \\) for \\( -\\pi \\leq \\theta \\leq \\pi \\), and since the inequality \\( \\cos x>1-x^{2} / 2 \\) for \\( x \\in(0, \\pi / 3] \\) follows from the Taylor series of \\( \\cos x \\).\nIn order to solve the problem posed, we must deal with the case \\( n=3 \\), i.e., \\( m=1 \\), since the bound\n\\[\n\\| p-v_{1}\\left|-\\left|p-v_{2}\\right|\\right| \\leq 2-2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{3}\\right)=1\n\\]\nis not quite good enough in that case. The proof shows, however, that equality holds for the chosen \\( v_{1} \\) and \\( v_{2} \\) only when \\( p \\) is on the circle and diametrically opposite \\( v_{1} \\), and in this case \\( p \\) is equidistant from the other two vertices. Hence the minimum of \\( \\left|\\left|p-v_{1}\\right|-\\left|p-v_{2}\\right|\\right| \\) over all choices of \\( v_{1} \\) and \\( v_{2} \\) is always less than 1 , and by compactness there exists \\( A>0 \\) such that it is less than \\( 1-A \\) for all \\( p \\) in the disc, as desired. \\( \\square \\)\n\nRemark. The \\( \\pi^{2} / n^{2} \\) improvement was first discovered by L. Crone and R. Holzsager, [Mon4, Solution to 10269]. (We guess that their solution was similar to ours.)\n\nStronger result. By considering the three vertices farthest from \\( p \\) instead of just \\( v_{1} \\) and \\( v_{2} \\), one can improve this to \\( (2 / 3) \\pi^{2} / n^{2} \\). Moreover, \\( (2 / 3) \\pi^{2} \\) cannot be replaced by any smaller constant, even if one insists that \\( n \\) be odd and that \\( p \\) be in \\( \\mathcal{G} \\).\nFirst let us prove the improvement. As in Solution 2, assume that \\( p=(-r, 0) \\). The vertex of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\) closest to \\( (1,0) \\) is \\( q_{\\theta}=(\\cos \\theta, \\sin \\theta) \\) for some \\( \\theta \\in[-\\pi / n, \\pi / n] \\). Reflecting if necessary, we may assume \\( \\theta \\in[0, \\pi / n] \\). Then \\( f_{r}(\\theta-2 \\pi / n), f_{r}(\\theta) \\), and \\( f_{r}(\\theta+2 \\pi / n) \\) are among the distances from \\( p \\) to the vertices of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\). We use a lemma that states that for fixed \\( \\theta^{\\prime}, \\theta^{\\prime \\prime} \\in[-\\pi, \\pi] \\), the function \\( \\left|f_{r}\\left(\\theta^{\\prime}\\right)-f_{r}\\left(\\theta^{\\prime \\prime}\\right)\\right| \\) of \\( r \\in[0,1] \\) is increasing (or zero if \\( \\left.\\left|\\theta^{\\prime}\\right|=\\left|\\theta^{\\prime \\prime}\\right|\\right) \\) : to prove this, we may assume that \\( 0 \\leq \\theta^{\\prime}<\\theta^{\\prime \\prime} \\leq \\pi \\) and observe that for fixed \\( r \\in(0,1) \\), the derivative\n\\[\n\\frac{d f_{r}\\left(\\theta^{\\prime}\\right)}{d r}=\\frac{r+\\cos \\theta^{\\prime}}{\\sqrt{\\left(r+\\cos \\theta^{\\prime}\\right)^{2}+\\sin ^{2} \\theta^{\\prime}}}\n\\]\nequals the cosine of the angle \\( q_{0} p q_{\\theta^{\\prime}} \\), whose measure increases with \\( \\theta^{\\prime} \\), so\n\\[\n\\frac{d f_{r}\\left(\\theta^{\\prime}\\right)}{d r}-\\frac{d f_{r}\\left(\\theta^{\\prime \\prime}\\right)}{d r}>0\n\\]\n\nIf \\( 0 \\leq \\theta \\leq \\pi /(3 n) \\), then\n\\[\n\\begin{array}{l}\n\\left|f_{r}\\left(\\theta-\\frac{2 \\pi}{n}\\right)-f_{r}\\left(\\theta+\\frac{2 \\pi}{n}\\right)\\right| \\leq\\left|f_{1}\\left(\\theta-\\frac{2 \\pi}{n}\\right)-f_{1}\\left(\\theta+\\frac{2 \\pi}{n}\\right)\\right| \\quad \\text { (by the len } \\\\\n=\\left|2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{\\theta}{2}-\\frac{\\pi}{n}\\right)-2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{\\theta}{2}+\\frac{\\pi}{n}\\right)\\right| \\\\\n=\\left|4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{\\theta}{2}\\right) \\sin \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{n}\\right)\\right| \\\\\n<\\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 n^{2}}, \\\\\n\\text { since } 0<\\sin x<x \\text { for } 0<x<\\pi / 2 \\text {. If instead } \\pi /(3 n) \\leq \\theta \\leq \\pi / n, \\text { then } \\\\\n\\left|f_{r}(\\theta)-f_{r}\\left(\\theta-\\frac{2 \\pi}{n}\\right)\\right| \\leq\\left|f_{1}(\\theta)-f_{1}\\left(\\theta-\\frac{2 \\pi}{n}\\right)\\right| \\quad \\text { (by the lemma) } \\\\\n=\\left|4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{2 n}-\\frac{\\theta}{2}\\right) \\sin \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{2 n}\\right)\\right| \\\\\n<\\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 n^{2}} .\n\\end{array}\n\\]\n\nThus there is always a pair of vertices of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\) whose distances to \\( p \\) differ by less than \\( (2 / 3) \\pi^{2} / n^{2} \\).\nNow let us show that the constant \\( (2 / 3) \\pi^{2} \\) cannot be replaced by anything smaller, even if \\( p \\) is required to be inside \\( \\mathcal{G} \\). Without loss of generality, we may assume that the regular \\( n \\)-gon \\( \\mathcal{G} \\) is inscribed in the circle \\( x^{2}+y^{2}=1 \\) and has one vertex at \\( (\\cos \\theta, \\sin \\theta) \\) where \\( \\theta=\\pi /(3 n) \\). Take \\( p=(-r, 0) \\) where \\( r=\\cos (\\pi / n) \\). Then \\( r \\) is the radius of the circle inscribed in \\( \\mathcal{G} \\), but since \\( \\theta \\) and \\( -\\pi \\) do not differ by an odd multiple of \\( \\pi / n \\), the point \\( p \\) lies strictly inside \\( \\mathcal{G} \\).\n\nFinally we show that for this choice of \\( p \\), if \\( v_{1} \\) and \\( v_{2} \\) are distinct vertices of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\), then\n\\[\n\\| p-v_{0}\\left|-\\left|p-v_{n}\\right|\\right| \\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 n^{2}}-o\\left(\\frac{1}{n^{n}}\\right) .\n\\]\n\nSince \\( f_{r}\\left(\\theta^{\\prime}\\right) \\) is a decreasing function of \\( \\left|\\theta^{\\prime}\\right| \\), the distances from \\( p \\) to the vertices, in decreasing order, are\n\\( f_{r}(\\theta), f_{r}(\\theta-2 \\pi / n), f_{r}(\\theta+2 \\pi / n), f_{r}(\\theta-4 \\pi / n), f_{r}(\\theta+4 \\pi / n) \\),\n\\[\n\\begin{array}{l}\n\\text { Since } p \\text { is within } 1-\\cos (\\pi / n) \\leq \\pi^{2} /\\left(2 n^{2}\\right) \\text { of }(-1,0) \\text {, this sequence is approximated } \\\\\n\\text { by }\n\\end{array}\n\\]\n\\( f_{1}(\\theta), f_{1}(\\theta-2 \\pi / n), f_{1}(\\theta+2 \\pi / n), f_{1}(\\theta-4 \\pi / n), f_{1}(\\theta+4 \\pi / n), \\ldots \\),\nwith an error of at most \\( \\pi^{2} /\\left(2 n^{2}\\right) \\) for each term. The latter sequence is\n\\[\n2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{6 n}\\right), 2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{5 \\pi}{6 n}\\right), 2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{7 \\pi}{6 n}\\right), 2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{1 \\pi}{6 n}\\right), 2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{13 \\pi}{6 n}\\right), \\ldots .\n\\]\n\nHence the consecutive differences in the original sequence are within \\( \\pi^{2} / n^{2} \\) of the\ndifferences for the approximating sequence, which are of the form\n\\[\n\\begin{array}{l} \n2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{(6 k-5) \\pi}{6 n}\\right)-2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{(6 k-1) \\pi}{6 n}\\right)=4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{(6 k-3) \\pi}{6 n}\\right) \\sin \\left(\\frac{2 \\pi}{6 n}\\right) \\\\\n=4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{(6 k-3) \\pi}{6 n}\\right)\\left(\\frac{2 \\pi}{6 n}\\right)-o\\left(\\frac{1}{n^{3}}\\right) \\\\\n\\text { or of the form } \\\\\n2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{(6 k-1) \\pi}{6 n}\\right)-2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{(6 k+1) \\pi}{6 n}\\right)=4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{6 k \\pi}{6 n}\\right) \\sin \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{6 n}\\right) \\\\\n=4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{k \\pi}{n}\\right)\\left(\\frac{\\pi}{6 n}\\right)-O\\left(\\frac{1}{n^{3}}\\right),\n\\end{array}\n\\]\nwhere \\( 1 \\leq k \\leq n / 2+O(1) \\). If \\( k \\geq 3 \\), then bounding the sines from below by their values at \\( k=3 \\) and then applying \\( \\sin x=x-O\\left(x^{3}\\right) \\) as \\( x \\rightarrow 0 \\) shows that these differences in the approximating sequence exceed \\( \\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 n^{2}}+\\frac{\\pi^{2}}{n^{2}} \\) so the corresponding differences in the original sequence exceed \\( \\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 n^{2}} \\). For \\( k<3 \\) (the first four differences), we forgo use of the approximating sequence and instead observe that for \\( r=\\cos (\\pi / n) \\) and fixed integer \\( j \\), Taylor series calculations give\n\\[\nf_{r}\\left(\\frac{j \\pi}{3 n}\\right)=2-\\frac{\\left(18+j^{2}\\right) \\pi^{2}}{36 n^{2}}+O\\left(\\frac{1}{n^{4}}\\right),\n\\]\nwhich implies that the first four differences in the original sequence (between the terms\ncorresponding to \\( j=1,5,7,11,13 \\) ) are at least\n\\( \\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 n^{2}}-o\\left(\\frac{1}{n^{2}}\\right) \\).",
  "vars": [
    "p",
    "v_1",
    "v_2",
    "v_i",
    "d_i",
    "d_i+1",
    "d_2m+1",
    "w",
    "r",
    "f_r",
    "q_\\\\theta",
    "q_0",
    "i",
    "\\\\theta",
    "\\\\theta_1",
    "\\\\theta_2",
    "s",
    "t",
    "k",
    "j",
    "v_0",
    "v_n"
  ],
  "params": [
    "m",
    "n",
    "A"
  ],
  "sci_consts": [],
  "variants": {
    "descriptive_long": {
      "map": {
        "p": "pointpt",
        "v_1": "vertexone",
        "v_2": "vertextwo",
        "v_i": "vertexindex",
        "d_i": "distindex",
        "d_i+1": "distnext",
        "d_2m+1": "distmax",
        "w": "widthdist",
        "r": "radialdist",
        "f_r": "distfunc",
        "q_\\theta": "qvertex",
        "q_0": "qzerover",
        "i": "indexer",
        "\\theta": "angleth",
        "\\theta_1": "angleone",
        "\\theta_2": "angletwo",
        "s": "samples",
        "t": "samplt",
        "k": "indexkay",
        "j": "indexjay",
        "v_0": "vertexzero",
        "v_n": "vertexenn",
        "m": "sidemnum",
        "n": "polycount",
        "A": "constanta"
      },
      "question": "Let $sidemnum$ be a positive integer and let $\\mathcal{G}$ be a regular $(2sidemnum+1)$-gon\ninscribed in the unit circle. Show that there is a positive constant $constanta$,\nindependent of $sidemnum$, with the following property. For any points $pointpt$ inside\n$\\cal G$ there are two distinct vertices $vertexone$ and $vertextwo$ of $\\cal G$\nsuch that\n\\[\n\\left|\\,|pointpt-vertexone| - |pointpt-vertextwo|\\,\\right| < \\frac1{sidemnum} - \\frac{constanta}{sidemnum^3}.\n\\]\nHere $|samples-samplt|$ denotes the distance between the points $samples$ and $samplt$.",
      "solution": "Solution 1. The greatest distance between two vertices of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\) is \\( widthdist=2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{4 sidemnum+2}\\right) \\), since these vertices with the center form an isosceles triangle with equal sides of length 1 , with vertex angle \\( 2 \\pi sidemnum /(2 sidemnum+1) \\) and base angles \\( \\pi /(4 sidemnum+2) \\). (See Figure 10.) Hence for any vertices \\( vertexone \\) and \\( vertextwo \\) of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\), the triangle inequality gives \\( \\left|\\left|pointpt-vertexone\\right|-\\right| pointpt- \\) \\( vertextwo \\| \\leq\\left|vertexone-vertextwo\\right| \\leq widthdist \\). Thus the \\( 2 sidemnum+1 \\) distances from \\( pointpt \\) to the vertices lie in an interval of length at most \\( widthdist \\). Let the distances be \\( distindex_{1} \\leq distindex_{2} \\leq \\cdots \\leq distmax \\). Then \\( \\sum_{indexer=1}^{2 sidemnum}\\left(distnext-distindex\\right)=distmax-distindex_{1} \\leq widthdist \\), so \\( distnext-distindex \\leq widthdist /(2 sidemnum) \\) for some \\( indexer \\). It remains to show that there exists \\( constanta>0 \\) independent of \\( sidemnum \\) such that \\( widthdist /(2 sidemnum)<1 / sidemnum-constanta / sidemnum^{3} \\). In fact, the Taylor expansion of \\( \\cos x \\) gives\n\\[\n\\frac{widthdist}{2 sidemnum}=\\frac{1}{sidemnum}\\left(1-\\frac{\\pi^{2}}{2(4 sidemnum+2)^{2}}+o\\left(sidemnum^{-2}\\right)\\right)=\\frac{1}{sidemnum}-\\frac{\\pi^{2}}{32 sidemnum^{3}}+o\\left(sidemnum^{-3}\\right)\n\\]\nas \\( sidemnum \\rightarrow \\infty \\), so any positive \\( constanta<\\pi^{2} / 32 \\) will work for all but finitely many \\( sidemnum \\). We can shrink \\( constanta \\) to make \\( widthdist /(2 sidemnum)<1 / sidemnum-constanta / sidemnum^{3} \\) for those finitely many \\( sidemnum \\) too, since \\( widthdist /(2 sidemnum)<1 / sidemnum \\) for all \\( sidemnum \\).\n\nSolution 2. We will prove an asymptotically stronger result, namely that for a regular \\( polycount \\)-gon \\( \\mathcal{G} \\) inscribed in a unit circle and for any \\( pointpt \\) in the closed unit disc,\nthere exist vertices \\( vertexone, vertextwo \\) of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\) such that \\( \\left|\\left|pointpt-vertexone\\right|-\\right| pointpt-vertextwo \\|<\\pi^{2} / polycount^{2} \\). Center the polygon at \\( (0,0) \\) and rotate to assume that \\( pointpt=(-radialdist, 0) \\) with \\( 0 \\leq radialdist \\leq 1 \\). Let the two vertices of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\) closest to \\( (1,0) \\) be \\( vertexindex=\\left(\\cos angleth_{indexer}, \\sin angleth_{indexer}\\right) \\) for \\( indexer=1,2 \\) where \\( angleone \\leq 0 \\leq angletwo \\) and \\( angletwo=angleone+2 \\pi / polycount \\). Then\n\\[\n\\| pointpt-vertexone\\left|-\\left|pointpt-vertextwo\\right|\\right|=\\left|distfunc_{radialdist}\\left(angleone\\right)-distfunc_{radialdist}\\left(angletwo\\right)\\right|,\n\\]\n\\[\ndistfunc_{radialdist}(angleth)=|(-radialdist, 0)-(\\cos angleth, \\sin angleth)|=\\sqrt{radialdist^{2}+2 radialdist \\cos angleth+1} .\n\\]\n\nReflecting if necessary, we may assume \\( distfunc_{radialdist}\\left(angleone\\right) \\geq distfunc_{radialdist}\\left(angletwo\\right) \\). A short calculation (for example using differentiation) shows that \\( distfunc_{radialdist}(angleth) \\) is decreasing on \\( [0, \\pi] \\) and increasing on \\( [-\\pi, 0] \\). Thus for fixed \\( radialdist, distfunc_{radialdist}\\left(angleone\\right)-distfunc_{radialdist}\\left(angletwo\\right) \\) is maximized when \\( angleone=0 \\) and \\( angletwo=2 \\pi / polycount \\). Next we claim that \\( distfunc_{radialdist}(0)-distfunc_{radialdist}(2 \\pi / polycount) \\) is increasing with \\( radialdist \\), hence maximized at \\( radialdist=1 \\) : this is because if \\( vertextwo^{\\prime} \\) is the point on line segment \\( \\overline{pointpt \\, vertexone} \\) with \\( \\left|pointpt-vertextwo\\right|=\\left|pointpt-vertextwo^{\\prime}\\right| \\), then as \\( radialdist \\) increases, angle \\( vertextwo \\, pointpt \\, vertextwo^{\\prime} \\) of the isosceles triangle shrinks, making angle \\( vertextwo \\, vertextwo^{\\prime} \\, pointpt \\) grow, putting \\( vertextwo^{\\prime} \\) farther from \\( vertexone \\), and \\( distfunc_{radialdist}(0)-distfunc_{radialdist}(2 \\pi / polycount)=\\left|vertextwo^{\\prime}-vertexone\\right| \\). See Figure 11. Hence\n\\[\n\\| pointpt-vertexone\\left|-\\left|pointpt-vertexzero\\right| \\leq distfunc_{1}(0)-distfunc_{1}\\left(\\frac{2 \\pi}{polycount}\\right)=2-2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{polycount}\\right)<\\frac{\\pi^{2}}{polycount^{2}}\\right.\n\\]\n\nsince \\( distfunc_{1}(angleth)=2 \\cos (angleth / 2) \\) for \\( -\\pi \\leq angleth \\leq \\pi \\), and since the inequality \\( \\cos x>1-x^{2} / 2 \\) for \\( x \\in(0, \\pi / 3] \\) follows from the Taylor series of \\( \\cos x \\).\nIn order to solve the problem posed, we must deal with the case \\( polycount=3 \\), i.e., \\( sidemnum=1 \\), since the bound\n\\[\n\\| pointpt-vertexone\\left|-\\left|pointpt-vertextwo\\right|\\right| \\leq 2-2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{3}\\right)=1\n\\]\nis not quite good enough in that case. The proof shows, however, that equality holds for the chosen \\( vertexone \\) and \\( vertextwo \\) only when \\( pointpt \\) is on the circle and diametrically opposite \\( vertexone \\), and in this case \\( pointpt \\) is equidistant from the other two vertices. Hence the minimum of \\( \\left|\\left|pointpt-vertexone\\right|-\\left|pointpt-vertextwo\\right|\\right| \\) over all choices of \\( vertexone \\) and \\( vertextwo \\) is always less than 1 , and by compactness there exists \\( constanta>0 \\) such that it is less than \\( 1-constanta \\) for all \\( pointpt \\) in the disc, as desired. \\( \\square \\)\n\nRemark. The \\( \\pi^{2} / polycount^{2} \\) improvement was first discovered by L. Crone and R. Holzsager, [Mon4, Solution to 10269]. (We guess that their solution was similar to ours.)\n\nStronger result. By considering the three vertices farthest from \\( pointpt \\) instead of just \\( vertexone \\) and \\( vertextwo \\), one can improve this to \\( (2 / 3) \\pi^{2} / polycount^{2} \\). Moreover, \\( (2 / 3) \\pi^{2} \\) cannot be replaced by any smaller constant, even if one insists that \\( polycount \\) be odd and that \\( pointpt \\) be in \\( \\mathcal{G} \\).\n\nFirst let us prove the improvement. As in Solution 2, assume that \\( pointpt=(-radialdist, 0) \\). The vertex of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\) closest to \\( (1,0) \\) is \\( qvertex_{angleth}=(\\cos angleth, \\sin angleth) \\) for some \\( angleth \\in[-\\pi / polycount, \\pi / polycount] \\). Reflecting if necessary, we may assume \\( angleth \\in[0, \\pi / polycount] \\). Then \\( distfunc_{radialdist}(angleth-2 \\pi / polycount), distfunc_{radialdist}(angleth) \\), and \\( distfunc_{radialdist}(angleth+2 \\pi / polycount) \\) are among the distances from \\( pointpt \\) to the vertices of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\). We use a lemma that states that for fixed \\( angleth^{\\prime}, angleth^{\\prime \\prime} \\in[-\\pi, \\pi] \\), the function \\( \\left|distfunc_{radialdist}\\left(angleth^{\\prime}\\right)-distfunc_{radialdist}\\left(angleth^{\\prime \\prime}\\right)\\right| \\) of \\( radialdist \\in[0,1] \\) is increasing (or zero if \\( \\left.\\left|angleth^{\\prime}\\right|=\\left|angleth^{\\prime \\prime}\\right|\\right) \\) : to prove this, we may assume that \\( 0 \\leq angleth^{\\prime}<angleth^{\\prime \\prime} \\leq \\pi \\) and observe that for fixed \\( radialdist \\in(0,1) \\), the derivative\n\\[\n\\frac{d distfunc_{radialdist}\\left(angleth^{\\prime}\\right)}{d radialdist}=\\frac{radialdist+\\cos angleth^{\\prime}}{\\sqrt{\\left(radialdist+\\cos angleth^{\\prime}\\right)^{2}+\\sin ^{2} angleth^{\\prime}}}\n\\]\nequals the cosine of the angle \\( qzerover \\, pointpt \\, qvertex_{angleth^{\\prime}} \\), whose measure increases with \\( angleth^{\\prime} \\), so\n\\[\n\\frac{d distfunc_{radialdist}\\left(angleth^{\\prime}\\right)}{d radialdist}-\\frac{d distfunc_{radialdist}\\left(angleth^{\\prime \\prime}\\right)}{d radialdist}>0\n\\]\n\nIf \\( 0 \\leq angleth \\leq \\pi /(3 polycount) \\), then\n\\[\n\\begin{array}{l}\n\\left|distfunc_{radialdist}\\left(angleth-\\frac{2 \\pi}{polycount}\\right)-distfunc_{radialdist}\\left(angleth+\\frac{2 \\pi}{polycount}\\right)\\right| \\leq\\left|distfunc_{1}\\left(angleth-\\frac{2 \\pi}{polycount}\\right)-distfunc_{1}\\left(angleth+\\frac{2 \\pi}{polycount}\\right)\\right| \\quad \\text { (by the lemma) } \\\\\n=\\left|2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{angleth}{2}-\\frac{\\pi}{polycount}\\right)-2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{angleth}{2}+\\frac{\\pi}{polycount}\\right)\\right| \\\\\n=\\left|4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{angleth}{2}\\right) \\sin \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{polycount}\\right)\\right| \\\\\n<\\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 polycount^{2}}, \\\\\n\\text { since } 0<\\sin x<x \\text { for } 0<x<\\pi / 2 \\text {. If instead } \\pi /(3 polycount) \\leq angleth \\leq \\pi / polycount, \\text { then } \\\\\n\\left|distfunc_{radialdist}(angleth)-distfunc_{radialdist}\\left(angleth-\\frac{2 \\pi}{polycount}\\right)\\right| \\leq\\left|distfunc_{1}(angleth)-distfunc_{1}\\left(angleth-\\frac{2 \\pi}{polycount}\\right)\\right| \\quad \\text { (by the lemma) } \\\\\n=\\left|4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{2 polycount}-\\frac{angleth}{2}\\right) \\sin \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{2 polycount}\\right)\\right| \\\\\n<\\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 polycount^{2}} .\n\\end{array}\n\\]\n\nThus there is always a pair of vertices of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\) whose distances to \\( pointpt \\) differ by less than \\( (2 / 3) \\pi^{2} / polycount^{2} \\).\nNow let us show that the constant \\( (2 / 3) \\pi^{2} \\) cannot be replaced by anything smaller, even if \\( pointpt \\) is required to be inside \\( \\mathcal{G} \\). Without loss of generality, we may assume that the regular \\( polycount \\)-gon \\( \\mathcal{G} \\) is inscribed in the circle \\( x^{2}+y^{2}=1 \\) and has one vertex at \\( (\\cos angleth, \\sin angleth) \\) where \\( angleth=\\pi /(3 polycount) \\). Take \\( pointpt=(-radialdist, 0) \\) where \\( radialdist=\\cos (\\pi / polycount) \\). Then \\( radialdist \\) is the radius of the circle inscribed in \\( \\mathcal{G} \\), but since \\( angleth \\) and \\( -\\pi \\) do not differ by an odd multiple of \\( \\pi / polycount \\), the point \\( pointpt \\) lies strictly inside \\( \\mathcal{G} \\).\n\nFinally we show that for this choice of \\( pointpt \\), if \\( vertexone \\) and \\( vertextwo \\) are distinct vertices of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\), then\n\\[\n\\| pointpt-vertexzero\\left|-\\left|pointpt-vertexenn\\right|\\right| \\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 polycount^{2}}-o\\left(\\frac{1}{polycount^{polycount}}\\right) .\n\\]\n\nSince \\( distfunc_{radialdist}\\left(angleth^{\\prime}\\right) \\) is a decreasing function of \\( \\left|angleth^{\\prime}\\right| \\), the distances from \\( pointpt \\) to the vertices, in decreasing order, are\n\\( distfunc_{radialdist}(angleth), distfunc_{radialdist}(angleth-2 \\pi / polycount), distfunc_{radialdist}(angleth+2 \\pi / polycount), distfunc_{radialdist}(angleth-4 \\pi / polycount), distfunc_{radialdist}(angleth+4 \\pi / polycount) \\),\n\\[\n\\begin{array}{l}\n\\text { Since } pointpt \\text { is within } 1-\\cos (\\pi / polycount) \\leq \\pi^{2} /\\left(2 polycount^{2}\\right) \\text { of }(-1,0) \\text {, this sequence is approximated } \\\\\n\\text { by }\n\\end{array}\n\\]\n\\( distfunc_{1}(angleth), distfunc_{1}(angleth-2 \\pi / polycount), distfunc_{1}(angleth+2 \\pi / polycount), distfunc_{1}(angleth-4 \\pi / polycount), distfunc_{1}(angleth+4 \\pi / polycount), \\ldots \\),\nwith an error of at most \\( \\pi^{2} /\\left(2 polycount^{2}\\right) \\) for each term. The latter sequence is\n\\[\n2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{6 polycount}\\right), 2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{5 \\pi}{6 polycount}\\right), 2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{7 \\pi}{6 polycount}\\right), 2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{1 \\pi}{6 polycount}\\right), 2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{13 \\pi}{6 polycount}\\right), \\ldots .\n\\]\n\nHence the consecutive differences in the original sequence are within \\( \\pi^{2} / polycount^{2} \\) of the\ndifferences for the approximating sequence, which are of the form\n\\[\n\\begin{array}{l} \n2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{(6 indexkay-5) \\pi}{6 polycount}\\right)-2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{(6 indexkay-1) \\pi}{6 polycount}\\right)=4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{(6 indexkay-3) \\pi}{6 polycount}\\right) \\sin \\left(\\frac{2 \\pi}{6 polycount}\\right) \\\\\n=4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{(6 indexkay-3) \\pi}{6 polycount}\\right)\\left(\\frac{2 \\pi}{6 polycount}\\right)-o\\left(\\frac{1}{polycount^{3}}\\right) \\\\\n\\text { or of the form } \\\\\n2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{(6 indexkay-1) \\pi}{6 polycount}\\right)-2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{(6 indexkay+1) \\pi}{6 polycount}\\right)=4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{6 indexkay \\pi}{6 polycount}\\right) \\sin \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{6 polycount}\\right) \\\\\n=4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{indexkay \\pi}{polycount}\\right)\\left(\\frac{\\pi}{6 polycount}\\right)-O\\left(\\frac{1}{polycount^{3}}\\right),\n\\end{array}\n\\]\nwhere \\( 1 \\leq indexkay \\leq polycount / 2+O(1) \\). If \\( indexkay \\geq 3 \\), then bounding the sines from below by their values at \\( indexkay=3 \\) and then applying \\( \\sin x=x-O\\left(x^{3}\\right) \\) as \\( x \\rightarrow 0 \\) shows that these differences in the approximating sequence exceed \\( \\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 polycount^{2}}+\\frac{\\pi^{2}}{polycount^{2}} \\) so the corresponding differences in the original sequence exceed \\( \\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 polycount^{2}} \\). For \\( indexkay<3 \\) (the first four differences), we forgo use of the approximating sequence and instead observe that for \\( radialdist=\\cos (\\pi / polycount) \\) and fixed integer \\( indexjay \\), Taylor series calculations give\n\\[\ndistfunc_{radialdist}\\left(\\frac{indexjay \\pi}{3 polycount}\\right)=2-\\frac{\\left(18+indexjay^{2}\\right) \\pi^{2}}{36 polycount^{2}}+O\\left(\\frac{1}{polycount^{4}}\\right),\n\\]\nwhich implies that the first four differences in the original sequence (between the terms\ncorresponding to \\( indexjay=1,5,7,11,13 \\) ) are at least\n\\( \\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 polycount^{2}}-o\\left(\\frac{1}{polycount^{2}}\\right) \\)."
    },
    "descriptive_long_confusing": {
      "map": {
        "p": "marigold",
        "v_1": "sailcloth",
        "v_2": "honeycomb",
        "v_i": "undertaker",
        "d_i": "scarecrow",
        "d_i+1": "tortoise",
        "d_2m+1": "turnpike",
        "w": "paperclip",
        "r": "nightfall",
        "f_r": "roundabout",
        "q_\\\\theta": "fencepost",
        "q_0": "snowflake",
        "i": "wildflower",
        "\\\\theta": "goldfinch",
        "\\\\theta_1": "afterglow",
        "\\\\theta_2": "gingerbread",
        "s": "blueberry",
        "t": "meadowlark",
        "k": "lighthouse",
        "j": "buttercup",
        "v_0": "moonstone",
        "v_n": "kingfisher",
        "m": "dreamboat",
        "n": "starfruit",
        "A": "rainstorm"
      },
      "question": "Let $dreamboat$ be a positive integer and let \\(\\mathcal{G}\\) be a regular $(2dreamboat+1)$-gon\ninscribed in the unit circle. Show that there is a positive constant $rainstorm$,\nindependent of $dreamboat$, with the following property. For any points $marigold$ inside\n\\cal G there are two distinct vertices $sailcloth$ and $honeycomb$ of \\cal G\nsuch that\n\\[\n\\left|\\,|marigold-sailcloth| - |marigold-honeycomb|\\,\\right| < \\frac1{dreamboat} - \\frac{rainstorm}{dreamboat^3}.\n\\]\nHere $|blueberry-meadowlark|$ denotes the distance between the points $blueberry$ and $meadowlark$.",
      "solution": "Solution 1. The greatest distance between two vertices of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\) is \\( paperclip=2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{4 dreamboat+2}\\right) \\), since these vertices with the center form an isosceles triangle with equal sides of length 1 , with vertex angle \\( 2 \\pi dreamboat /(2 dreamboat+1) \\) and base angles \\( \\pi /(4 dreamboat+2) \\). (See Figure 10.) Hence for any vertices \\( sailcloth \\) and \\( honeycomb \\) of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\), the triangle inequality gives \\( \\left|\\left|marigold-sailcloth\\right|-\\right| marigold- honeycomb \\| \\leq\\left|sailcloth-honeycomb\\right| \\leq paperclip \\). Thus the \\( 2 dreamboat+1 \\) distances from \\( marigold \\) to the vertices lie in an interval of length at most \\( paperclip \\). Let the distances be \\( scarecrow \\leq tortoise \\leq \\cdots \\leq turnpike \\). Then \\( \\sum_{wildflower=1}^{2 dreamboat}\\left(tortoise-scarecrow\\right)=turnpike-scarecrow \\leq paperclip \\), so \\( tortoise - scarecrow \\leq paperclip /(2 dreamboat) \\) for some \\( wildflower \\). It remains to show that there exists \\( rainstorm>0 \\) independent of \\( dreamboat \\) such that \\( paperclip /(2 dreamboat)<\\frac{1}{dreamboat}-\\frac{rainstorm}{dreamboat^{3}} \\). In fact, the Taylor expansion of \\( \\cos x \\) gives\n\\[\n\\frac{paperclip}{2 dreamboat}=\\frac{1}{dreamboat}\\left(1-\\frac{\\pi^{2}}{2(4 dreamboat+2)^{2}}+o\\left(dreamboat^{-2}\\right)\\right)=\\frac{1}{dreamboat}-\\frac{\\pi^{2}}{32 dreamboat^{3}}+o\\left(dreamboat^{-3}\\right)\n\\]\nas \\( dreamboat \\rightarrow \\infty \\), so any positive \\( rainstorm<\\pi^{2} / 32 \\) will work for all but finitely many \\( dreamboat \\). We can shrink \\( rainstorm \\) to make \\( paperclip /(2 dreamboat)<\\frac{1}{dreamboat}-\\frac{rainstorm}{dreamboat^{3}} \\) for those finitely many \\( dreamboat \\) too, since \\( paperclip /(2 dreamboat)<1 / dreamboat \\) for all \\( dreamboat \\).\n\nSolution 2. We will prove an asymptotically stronger result, namely that for a regular \\( starfruit \\)-gon \\( \\mathcal{G} \\) inscribed in a unit circle and for any \\( marigold \\) in the closed unit disc,\nthere exist vertices \\( sailcloth, honeycomb \\) of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\) such that \\( \\left|\\left|marigold-sailcloth\\right|-\\right| marigold-honeycomb \\|<\\pi^{2} / starfruit^{2} \\). Center the polygon at \\( (0,0) \\) and rotate to assume that \\( marigold=(-nightfall, 0) \\) with \\( 0 \\leq nightfall \\leq 1 \\). Let the two vertices of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\) closest to \\( (1,0) \\) be \\( undertaker=\\left(\\cos afterglow, \\sin afterglow\\right) \\) for \\( wildflower=1,2 \\) where \\( afterglow \\leq 0 \\leq gingerbread \\) and \\( gingerbread=afterglow+2 \\pi / starfruit \\). Then\n\\[\n\\| marigold-sailcloth\\left|-\\left|marigold-honeycomb\\right|\\right|=\\left|roundabout_{nightfall}\\left(afterglow\\right)-roundabout_{nightfall}\\left(gingerbread\\right)\\right|,\n\\]\n\\[\nroundabout_{nightfall}(goldfinch)=|(-nightfall, 0)-(\\cos goldfinch, \\sin goldfinch)|=\\sqrt{nightfall^{2}+2 nightfall \\cos goldfinch+1} .\n\\]\n\nReflecting if necessary, we may assume \\( roundabout_{nightfall}\\left(afterglow\\right) \\geq roundabout_{nightfall}\\left(gingerbread\\right) \\). A short calculation (for example using differentiation) shows that \\( roundabout_{nightfall}(goldfinch) \\) is decreasing on \\( [0, \\pi] \\) and increasing on \\( [-\\pi, 0] \\). Thus for fixed \\( nightfall, roundabout_{nightfall}\\left(afterglow\\right)-roundabout_{nightfall}\\left(gingerbread\\right) \\) is maximized when \\( afterglow=0 \\) and \\( gingerbread=2 \\pi / starfruit \\). Next we claim that \\( roundabout_{nightfall}(0)-roundabout_{nightfall}(2 \\pi / starfruit) \\) is increasing with \\( nightfall \\), hence maximized at \\( nightfall=1 \\) : this is because if \\( honeycomb^{\\prime} \\) is the point on line segment \\( \\overline{marigold sailcloth} \\) with \\( \\left|marigold-honeycomb\\right|=\\left|marigold-honeycomb^{\\prime}\\right| \\), then as \\( nightfall \\) increases, angle \\( honeycomb marigold honeycomb^{\\prime} \\) of the isosceles triangle shrinks, making angle \\( honeycomb honeycomb^{\\prime} marigold \\) grow, putting \\( honeycomb^{\\prime} \\) farther from \\( sailcloth \\), and \\( roundabout_{nightfall}(0)-roundabout_{nightfall}(2 \\pi / starfruit)=\\left|honeycomb^{\\prime}-sailcloth\\right| \\). See Figure 11. Hence\n\\[\n\\| marigold-sailcloth\\left|-\\left|marigold-moonstone\\right| \\leq roundabout_{1}(0)-roundabout_{1}\\left(\\frac{2 \\pi}{starfruit}\\right)=2-2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{starfruit}\\right)<\\frac{\\pi^{2}}{starfruit^{2}}\\right.\n\\]\nsince \\( roundabout_{1}(goldfinch)=2 \\cos (goldfinch / 2) \\) for \\( -\\pi \\leq goldfinch \\leq \\pi \\), and since the inequality \\( \\cos x>1-x^{2} / 2 \\) for \\( x \\in(0, \\pi / 3] \\) follows from the Taylor series of \\( \\cos x \\).\nIn order to solve the problem posed, we must deal with the case \\( starfruit=3 \\), i.e., \\( dreamboat=1 \\), since the bound\n\\[\n\\| marigold-sailcloth\\left|-\\left|marigold-honeycomb\\right|\\right| \\leq 2-2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{3}\\right)=1\n\\]\nis not quite good enough in that case. The proof shows, however, that equality holds for the chosen \\( sailcloth \\) and \\( honeycomb \\) only when \\( marigold \\) is on the circle and diametrically opposite \\( sailcloth \\), and in this case \\( marigold \\) is equidistant from the other two vertices. Hence the minimum of \\( \\left|\\left|marigold-sailcloth\\right|-\\left|marigold-honeycomb\\right|\\right| \\) over all choices of \\( sailcloth \\) and \\( honeycomb \\) is always less than 1 , and by compactness there exists \\( rainstorm>0 \\) such that it is less than \\( 1-rainstorm \\) for all \\( marigold \\) in the disc, as desired. \\( \\square \\)\n\nRemark. The \\( \\pi^{2} / starfruit^{2} \\) improvement was first discovered by L. Crone and R. Holzsager, [Mon4, Solution to 10269]. (We guess that their solution was similar to ours.)\n\nStronger result. By considering the three vertices farthest from \\( marigold \\) instead of just \\( sailcloth \\) and \\( honeycomb \\), one can improve this to \\( (2 / 3) \\pi^{2} / starfruit^{2} \\). Moreover, \\( (2 / 3) \\pi^{2} \\) cannot be replaced by any smaller constant, even if one insists that \\( starfruit \\) be odd and that \\( marigold \\) be in \\( \\mathcal{G} \\).\nFirst let us prove the improvement. As in Solution 2, assume that \\( marigold=(-nightfall, 0) \\). The vertex of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\) closest to \\( (1,0) \\) is \\( fencepost_{goldfinch}=(\\cos goldfinch, \\sin goldfinch) \\) for some \\( goldfinch \\in[-\\pi / starfruit, \\pi / starfruit] \\). Reflecting if necessary, we may assume \\( goldfinch \\in[0, \\pi / starfruit] \\). Then \\( roundabout_{nightfall}(goldfinch-2 \\pi / starfruit), roundabout_{nightfall}(goldfinch), and roundabout_{nightfall}(goldfinch+2 \\pi / starfruit) \\) are among the distances from \\( marigold \\) to the vertices of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\). We use a lemma that states that for fixed \\( goldfinch^{\\prime}, goldfinch^{\\prime \\prime} \\in[-\\pi, \\pi] \\), the function \\( \\left|roundabout_{nightfall}\\left(goldfinch^{\\prime}\\right)-roundabout_{nightfall}\\left(goldfinch^{\\prime \\prime}\\right)\\right| \\) of \\( nightfall \\in[0,1] \\) is increasing (or zero if \\( \\left.|goldfinch^{\\prime}|=|goldfinch^{\\prime \\prime}|\\right) \\) : to prove this, we may assume that \\( 0 \\leq goldfinch^{\\prime}<goldfinch^{\\prime \\prime} \\leq \\pi \\) and observe that for fixed \\( nightfall \\in(0,1) \\), the derivative\n\\[\n\\frac{d roundabout_{nightfall}\\left(goldfinch^{\\prime}\\right)}{d nightfall}=\\frac{nightfall+\\cos goldfinch^{\\prime}}{\\sqrt{\\left(nightfall+\\cos goldfinch^{\\prime}\\right)^{2}+\\sin ^{2} goldfinch^{\\prime}}}\n\\]\nequals the cosine of the angle \\( snowflake marigold fencepost_{goldfinch^{\\prime}} \\), whose measure increases with \\( goldfinch^{\\prime} \\), so\n\\[\n\\frac{d roundabout_{nightfall}\\left(goldfinch^{\\prime}\\right)}{d nightfall}-\\frac{d roundabout_{nightfall}\\left(goldfinch^{\\prime \\prime}\\right)}{d nightfall}>0\n\\]\n\nIf \\( 0 \\leq goldfinch \\leq \\pi /(3 starfruit) \\), then\n\\[\n\\begin{array}{l}\n\\left|roundabout_{nightfall}\\left(goldfinch-\\frac{2 \\pi}{starfruit}\\right)-roundabout_{nightfall}\\left(goldfinch+\\frac{2 \\pi}{starfruit}\\right)\\right| \\leq\\left|roundabout_{1}\\left(goldfinch-\\frac{2 \\pi}{starfruit}\\right)-roundabout_{1}\\left(goldfinch+\\frac{2 \\pi}{starfruit}\\right)\\right| \\\n=\\left|2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{goldfinch}{2}-\\frac{\\pi}{starfruit}\\right)-2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{goldfinch}{2}+\\frac{\\pi}{starfruit}\\right)\\right| \\\\\n=\\left|4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{goldfinch}{2}\\right) \\sin \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{starfruit}\\right)\\right| \\\\\n<\\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 starfruit^{2}}, \\\\\n\\text { since } 0<\\sin x<x \\text { for } 0<x<\\pi / 2 \\text {. If instead } \\pi /(3 starfruit) \\leq goldfinch \\leq \\pi / starfruit, \\text { then } \\\\\n\\left|roundabout_{nightfall}(goldfinch)-roundabout_{nightfall}\\left(goldfinch-\\frac{2 \\pi}{starfruit}\\right)\\right| \\leq\\left|roundabout_{1}(goldfinch)-roundabout_{1}\\left(goldfinch-\\frac{2 \\pi}{starfruit}\\right)\\right| \\\\ \\text { (by the lemma) } \\\\\n=\\left|4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{2 starfruit}-\\frac{goldfinch}{2}\\right) \\sin \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{2 starfruit}\\right)\\right| \\\\\n<\\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 starfruit^{2}} .\n\\end{array}\n\\]\n\nThus there is always a pair of vertices of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\) whose distances to \\( marigold \\) differ by less than \\( (2 / 3) \\pi^{2} / starfruit^{2} \\).\nNow let us show that the constant \\( (2 / 3) \\pi^{2} \\) cannot be replaced by anything smaller, even if \\( marigold \\) is required to be inside \\( \\mathcal{G} \\). Without loss of generality, we may assume that the regular \\( starfruit \\)-gon \\( \\mathcal{G} \\) is inscribed in the circle \\( x^{2}+y^{2}=1 \\) and has one vertex at \\( (\\cos goldfinch, \\sin goldfinch) \\) where \\( goldfinch=\\pi /(3 starfruit) \\). Take \\( marigold=(-nightfall, 0) \\) where \\( nightfall=\\cos (\\pi / starfruit) \\). Then \\( nightfall \\) is the radius of the circle inscribed in \\( \\mathcal{G} \\), but since \\( goldfinch \\) and \\( -\\pi \\) do not differ by an odd multiple of \\( \\pi / starfruit \\), the point \\( marigold \\) lies strictly inside \\( \\mathcal{G} \\).\n\nFinally we show that for this choice of \\( marigold \\), if \\( sailcloth \\) and \\( kingfisher \\) are distinct vertices of \\( \\mathcal{G} \\), then\n\\[\n\\| marigold-moonstone\\left|-\\left|marigold-kingfisher\\right|\\right| \\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 starfruit^{2}}-o\\left(\\frac{1}{starfruit^{starfruit}}\\right) .\n\\]\n\nSince \\( roundabout_{nightfall}\\left(goldfinch^{\\prime}\\right) \\) is a decreasing function of \\( |goldfinch^{\\prime}| \\), the distances from \\( marigold \\) to the vertices, in decreasing order, are\n\\( roundabout_{nightfall}(goldfinch), roundabout_{nightfall}(goldfinch-2 \\pi / starfruit), roundabout_{nightfall}(goldfinch+2 \\pi / starfruit), roundabout_{nightfall}(goldfinch-4 \\pi / starfruit), roundabout_{nightfall}(goldfinch+4 \\pi / starfruit) \\),\n\\[\n\\begin{array}{l}\n\\text { Since } marigold \\text { is within } 1-\\cos (\\pi / starfruit) \\leq \\pi^{2} /\\left(2 starfruit^{2}\\right) \\text { of }(-1,0) \\text {, this sequence is approximated } \\\\\n\\text { by }\n\\end{array}\n\\]\n\\( roundabout_{1}(goldfinch), roundabout_{1}(goldfinch-2 \\pi / starfruit), roundabout_{1}(goldfinch+2 \\pi / starfruit), roundabout_{1}(goldfinch-4 \\pi / starfruit), roundabout_{1}(goldfinch+4 \\pi / starfruit), \\ldots \\),\nwith an error of at most \\( \\pi^{2} /\\left(2 starfruit^{2}\\right) \\) for each term. The latter sequence is\n\\[\n2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{6 starfruit}\\right), 2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{5 \\pi}{6 starfruit}\\right), 2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{7 \\pi}{6 starfruit}\\right), 2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{1 \\pi}{6 starfruit}\\right), 2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{13 \\pi}{6 starfruit}\\right), \\ldots .\n\\]\n\nHence the consecutive differences in the original sequence are within \\( \\pi^{2} / starfruit^{2} \\) of the\ndifferences for the approximating sequence, which are of the form\n\\[\n\\begin{array}{l} \n2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{(6 lighthouse-5) \\pi}{6 starfruit}\\right)-2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{(6 lighthouse-1) \\pi}{6 starfruit}\\right)=4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{(6 lighthouse-3) \\pi}{6 starfruit}\\right) \\sin \\left(\\frac{2 \\pi}{6 starfruit}\\right) \\\\\n=4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{(6 lighthouse-3) \\pi}{6 starfruit}\\right)\\left(\\frac{2 \\pi}{6 starfruit}\\right)-o\\left(\\frac{1}{starfruit^{3}}\\right) \\\\\n\\text { or of the form } \\\\\n2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{(6 lighthouse-1) \\pi}{6 starfruit}\\right)-2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{(6 lighthouse+1) \\pi}{6 starfruit}\\right)=4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{6 lighthouse \\pi}{6 starfruit}\\right) \\sin \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{6 starfruit}\\right) \\\\\n=4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{lighthouse \\pi}{starfruit}\\right)\\left(\\frac{\\pi}{6 starfruit}\\right)-O\\left(\\frac{1}{starfruit^{3}}\\right),\n\\end{array}\n\\]\nwhere \\( 1 \\leq lighthouse \\leq starfruit / 2+O(1) \\). If \\( lighthouse \\geq 3 \\), then bounding the sines from below by their values at \\( lighthouse=3 \\) and then applying \\( \\sin x=x-O\\left(x^{3}\\right) \\) as \\( x \\rightarrow 0 \\) shows that these differences in the approximating sequence exceed \\( \\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 starfruit^{2}}+\\frac{\\pi^{2}}{starfruit^{2}} \\) so the corresponding differences in the original sequence exceed \\( \\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 starfruit^{2}} \\). For \\( lighthouse<3 \\) (the first four differences), we forgo use of the approximating sequence and instead observe that for \\( nightfall=\\cos (\\pi / starfruit) \\) and fixed integer \\( buttercup \\), Taylor series calculations give\n\\[\nroundabout_{nightfall}\\left(\\frac{buttercup \\pi}{3 starfruit}\\right)=2-\\frac{\\left(18+buttercup^{2}\\right) \\pi^{2}}{36 starfruit^{2}}+O\\left(\\frac{1}{starfruit^{4}}\\right),\n\\]\nwhich implies that the first four differences in the original sequence (between the terms\ncorresponding to \\( buttercup=1,5,7,11,13 \\) ) are at least\n\\( \\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 starfruit^{2}}-o\\left(\\frac{1}{starfruit^{2}}\\right) \\)."
    },
    "descriptive_long_misleading": {
      "map": {
        "p": "outsidepoint",
        "v_1": "nonvertex",
        "v_2": "edgepoint",
        "v_i": "centernode",
        "d_i": "proximityvalue",
        "d_i+1": "adjacentproximity",
        "d_2m+1": "highestproximity",
        "w": "minimalgap",
        "r": "tangentlength",
        "f_r": "closenessmap",
        "q_\\\\theta": "stationaryorigin",
        "q_0": "movingorigin",
        "i": "completecount",
        "\\\\theta": "straightness",
        "\\\\theta_1": "straightnessleft",
        "\\\\theta_2": "straightnessright",
        "s": "stationary",
        "t": "mobilepoint",
        "k": "totality",
        "j": "entirety",
        "v_0": "innernode",
        "v_n": "midpointnode",
        "m": "fractionvalue",
        "n": "fragment",
        "A": "hugevariable"
      },
      "question": "Let $fractionvalue$ be a positive integer and let $\\mathcal{G}$ be a regular $(2fractionvalue+1)$-gon\ninscribed in the unit circle. Show that there is a positive constant $hugevariable$,\nindependent of $fractionvalue$, with the following property. For any points $outsidepoint$ inside\n$\\cal G$ there are two distinct vertices $nonvertex$ and $edgepoint$ of $\\cal G$\nsuch that\n\\[\n\\left|\\,|outsidepoint-nonvertex| - |outsidepoint-edgepoint|\\,\\right| < \\frac1{fractionvalue} - \\frac{hugevariable}{fractionvalue^3}.\n\\]\nHere $|stationary-mobilepoint|$ denotes the distance between the points $stationary$ and $mobilepoint$.",
      "solution": "Solution 1. The greatest distance between two vertices of $ \\mathcal{G} $ is $ minimalgap=2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{4 fractionvalue+2}\\right) $, since these vertices with the center form an isosceles triangle with equal sides of length 1 , with vertex angle $ 2 \\pi fractionvalue /(2 fractionvalue+1) $ and base angles $ \\pi /(4 fractionvalue+2) $. (See Figure 10.) Hence for any vertices $ nonvertex $ and $ edgepoint $ of $ \\mathcal{G} $, the triangle inequality gives $ \\left|\\left|outsidepoint-nonvertex\\right|-\\right| outsidepoint- edgepoint \\| \\leq\\left|nonvertex-edgepoint\\right| \\leq minimalgap $. Thus the $ 2 fractionvalue+1 $ distances from $ outsidepoint $ to the vertices lie in an interval of length at most $ minimalgap $. Let the distances be $ proximityvalue_1 \\leq proximityvalue_2 \\leq \\cdots \\leq highestproximity $. Then $ \\sum_{completecount=1}^{2 fractionvalue}\\left(adjacentproximity-proximityvalue\\right)=highestproximity-proximityvalue \\leq minimalgap $, so $ adjacentproximity-proximityvalue \\leq minimalgap /(2 fractionvalue) $ for some $ completecount $. It remains to show that there exists $ hugevariable>0 $ independent of $ fractionvalue $ such that $ minimalgap /(2 fractionvalue)<1 / fractionvalue-hugevariable / fractionvalue^{3} $. In fact, the Taylor expansion of $ \\cos x $ gives\n\\[\n\\frac{minimalgap}{2 fractionvalue}=\\frac{1}{fractionvalue}\\left(1-\\frac{\\pi^{2}}{2(4 fractionvalue+2)^{2}}+o\\left(fractionvalue^{-2}\\right)\\right)=\\frac{1}{fractionvalue}-\\frac{\\pi^{2}}{32 fractionvalue^{3}}+o\\left(fractionvalue^{-3}\\right)\n\\]\nas $ fractionvalue \\rightarrow \\infty $, so any positive $ hugevariable<\\pi^{2} / 32 $ will work for all but finitely many $ fractionvalue $. We can shrink $ hugevariable $ to make $ minimalgap /(2 fractionvalue)<1 / fractionvalue-hugevariable / fractionvalue^{3} $ for those finitely many $ fractionvalue $ too, since $ minimalgap /(2 fractionvalue)<1 / fractionvalue $ for all $ fractionvalue $.\n\nSolution 2. We will prove an asymptotically stronger result, namely that for a regular $ fragment $-gon $ \\mathcal{G} $ inscribed in a unit circle and for any $ outsidepoint $ in the closed unit disc,\nthere exist vertices $ nonvertex, edgepoint $ of $ \\mathcal{G} $ such that $ \\left|\\left|outsidepoint-nonvertex\\right|-\\right| outsidepoint-edgepoint \\|<\\pi^{2} / fragment^{2} $. Center the polygon at $ (0,0) $ and rotate to assume that $ outsidepoint=(-tangentlength, 0) $ with $ 0 \\leq tangentlength \\leq 1 $. Let the two vertices of $ \\mathcal{G} $ closest to $ (1,0) $ be $ v_{completecount}=\\left(\\cos straightness_{completecount}, \\sin straightness_{completecount}\\right) $ for $ completecount=1,2 $ where $ straightnessleft \\leq 0 \\leq straightnessright $ and $ straightnessright=straightnessleft+2 \\pi / fragment $. Then\n\\[\n\\| outsidepoint-nonvertex\\left|-\\left|outsidepoint-edgepoint\\right|\\right|=\\left|closenessmap_{tangentlength}\\left(straightnessleft\\right)-closenessmap_{tangentlength}\\left(straightnessright\\right)\\right|,\n\\]\n\\[\nclosenessmap_{tangentlength}(straightness)=|(-tangentlength, 0)-(\\cos straightness, \\sin straightness)|=\\sqrt{tangentlength^{2}+2 tangentlength \\cos straightness+1} .\n\\]\n\nReflecting if necessary, we may assume $ closenessmap_{tangentlength}\\left(straightnessleft\\right) \\geq closenessmap_{tangentlength}\\left(straightnessright\\right) $. A short calculation (for example using differentiation) shows that $ closenessmap_{tangentlength}(straightness) $ is decreasing on $ [0, \\pi] $ and increasing on $ [-\\pi, 0] $. Thus for fixed $ tangentlength, closenessmap_{tangentlength}\\left(straightnessleft\\right)-closenessmap_{tangentlength}\\left(straightnessright\\right) $ is maximized when $ straightnessleft=0 $ and $ straightnessright=2 \\pi / fragment $. Next we claim that $ closenessmap_{tangentlength}(0)-closenessmap_{tangentlength}(2 \\pi / fragment) $ is increasing with $ tangentlength $, hence maximized at $ tangentlength=1 $ : this is because if $ v_{2}^{\\prime} $ is the point on line segment $ \\overline{outsidepoint nonvertex} $ with $ \\left|outsidepoint-edgepoint\\right|=\\left|outsidepoint-v_{2}^{\\prime}\\right| $, then as $ tangentlength $ increases, angle $ edgepoint \\, outsidepoint \\, v_{2}^{\\prime} $ of the isosceles triangle shrinks, making angle $ edgepoint \\, v_{2}^{\\prime} \\, outsidepoint $ grow, putting $ v_{2}^{\\prime} $ farther from $ nonvertex $, and $ closenessmap_{tangentlength}(0)-closenessmap_{tangentlength}(2 \\pi / fragment)=\\left|v_{2}^{\\prime}-nonvertex\\right| $. See Figure 11. Hence\n\\[\n\\| outsidepoint-nonvertex\\left|-\\left|outsidepoint-v_{0}\\right| \\leq closenessmap_{1}(0)-closenessmap_{1}\\left(\\frac{2 \\pi}{fragment}\\right)=2-2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{fragment}\\right)<\\frac{\\pi^{2}}{fragment^{2}}\\right.\n\\]\nsince $ closenessmap_{1}(straightness)=2 \\cos (straightness / 2) $ for $ -\\pi \\leq straightness \\leq \\pi $, and since the inequality $ \\cos x>1-x^{2} / 2 $ for $ x \\in(0, \\pi / 3] $ follows from the Taylor series of $ \\cos x $.\nIn order to solve the problem posed, we must deal with the case $ fragment=3 $, i.e., $ fractionvalue=1 $, since the bound\n\\[\n\\| outsidepoint-nonvertex\\left|-\\left|outsidepoint-edgepoint\\right|\\right| \\leq 2-2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{3}\\right)=1\n\\]\nis not quite good enough in that case. The proof shows, however, that equality holds for the chosen $ nonvertex $ and $ edgepoint $ only when $ outsidepoint $ is on the circle and diametrically opposite $ nonvertex $, and in this case $ outsidepoint $ is equidistant from the other two vertices. Hence the minimum of $ \\left|\\left|outsidepoint-nonvertex\\right|-\\left|outsidepoint-edgepoint\\right|\\right| $ over all choices of $ nonvertex $ and $ edgepoint $ is always less than 1 , and by compactness there exists $ hugevariable>0 $ such that it is less than $ 1-hugevariable $ for all $ outsidepoint $ in the disc, as desired. $ \\square $\n\nRemark. The $ \\pi^{2} / fragment^{2} $ improvement was first discovered by L. Crone and R. Holzsager, [Mon4, Solution to 10269]. (We guess that their solution was similar to ours.)\n\nStronger result. By considering the three vertices farthest from $ outsidepoint $ instead of just $ nonvertex $ and $ edgepoint $, one can improve this to $ (2 / 3) \\pi^{2} / fragment^{2} $. Moreover, $ (2 / 3) \\pi^{2} $ cannot be replaced by any smaller constant, even if one insists that $ fragment $ be odd and that $ outsidepoint $ be in $ \\mathcal{G} $.\nFirst let us prove the improvement. As in Solution 2, assume that $ outsidepoint=(-tangentlength, 0) $. The vertex of $ \\mathcal{G} $ closest to $ (1,0) $ is $ stationaryorigin_{straightness}=(\\cos straightness, \\sin straightness) $ for some $ straightness \\in[-\\pi / fragment, \\pi / fragment] $. Reflecting if necessary, we may assume $ straightness \\in[0, \\pi / fragment] $. Then $ closenessmap_{tangentlength}(straightness-2 \\pi / fragment), closenessmap_{tangentlength}(straightness) $, and $ closenessmap_{tangentlength}(straightness+2 \\pi / fragment) $ are among the distances from $ outsidepoint $ to the vertices of $ \\mathcal{G} $. We use a lemma that states that for fixed $ straightness^{\\prime}, straightness^{\\prime \\prime} \\in[-\\pi, \\pi] $, the function $ \\left|closenessmap_{tangentlength}\\left(straightness^{\\prime}\\right)-closenessmap_{tangentlength}\\left(straightness^{\\prime \\prime}\\right)\\right| $ of $ tangentlength \\in[0,1] $ is increasing (or zero if $ \\left.|straightness^{\\prime}|=|straightness^{\\prime \\prime}|\\right) $ : to prove this, we may assume that $ 0 \\leq straightness^{\\prime}<straightness^{\\prime \\prime} \\leq \\pi $ and observe that for fixed $ tangentlength \\in(0,1) $, the derivative\n\\[\n\\frac{d closenessmap_{tangentlength}\\left(straightness^{\\prime}\\right)}{d tangentlength}=\\frac{tangentlength+\\cos straightness^{\\prime}}{\\sqrt{\\left(tangentlength+\\cos straightness^{\\prime}\\right)^{2}+\\sin ^{2} straightness^{\\prime}}}\n\\]\nequals the cosine of the angle $ stationaryorigin_{0} \\, outsidepoint \\, stationaryorigin_{straightness^{\\prime}} $, whose measure increases with $ straightness^{\\prime} $, so\n\\[\n\\frac{d closenessmap_{tangentlength}\\left(straightness^{\\prime}\\right)}{d tangentlength}-\\frac{d closenessmap_{tangentlength}\\left(straightness^{\\prime \\prime}\\right)}{d tangentlength}>0\n\\]\n\nIf $ 0 \\leq straightness \\leq \\pi /(3 fragment) $, then\n\\[\n\\begin{array}{l}\n\\left|closenessmap_{tangentlength}\\left(straightness-\\frac{2 \\pi}{fragment}\\right)-closenessmap_{tangentlength}\\left(straightness+\\frac{2 \\pi}{fragment}\\right)\\right| \\leq\\left|closenessmap_{1}\\left(straightness-\\frac{2 \\pi}{fragment}\\right)-closenessmap_{1}\\left(straightness+\\frac{2 \\pi}{fragment}\\right)\\right| \\\\\n=\\left|2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{straightness}{2}-\\frac{\\pi}{fragment}\\right)-2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{straightness}{2}+\\frac{\\pi}{fragment}\\right)\\right| \\\\\n=\\left|4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{straightness}{2}\\right) \\sin \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{fragment}\\right)\\right| \\\\\n<\\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 fragment^{2}}, \\\\\n\\text { since } 0<\\sin x<x \\text { for } 0<x<\\pi / 2 \\text {. If instead } \\pi /(3 fragment) \\leq straightness \\leq \\pi / fragment, \\text { then } \\\\\n\\left|closenessmap_{tangentlength}(straightness)-closenessmap_{tangentlength}\\left(straightness-\\frac{2 \\pi}{fragment}\\right)\\right| \\leq\\left|closenessmap_{1}(straightness)-closenessmap_{1}\\left(straightness-\\frac{2 \\pi}{fragment}\\right)\\right| \\quad \\text { (by the lemma) } \\\\\n=\\left|4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{2 fragment}-\\frac{straightness}{2}\\right) \\sin \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{2 fragment}\\right)\\right| \\\\\n<\\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 fragment^{2}} .\n\\end{array}\n\\]\n\nThus there is always a pair of vertices of $ \\mathcal{G} $ whose distances to $ outsidepoint $ differ by less than $ (2 / 3) \\pi^{2} / fragment^{2} $.\nNow let us show that the constant $ (2 / 3) \\pi^{2} $ cannot be replaced by anything smaller, even if $ outsidepoint $ is required to be inside $ \\mathcal{G} $. Without loss of generality, we may assume that the regular $ fragment $-gon $ \\mathcal{G} $ is inscribed in the circle $ x^{2}+y^{2}=1 $ and has one vertex at $ (\\cos straightness, \\sin straightness) $ where $ straightness=\\pi /(3 fragment) $. Take $ outsidepoint=(-tangentlength, 0) $ where $ tangentlength=\\cos (\\pi / fragment) $. Then $ tangentlength $ is the radius of the circle inscribed in $ \\mathcal{G} $, but since $ straightness $ and $ -\\pi $ do not differ by an odd multiple of $ \\pi / fragment $, the point $ outsidepoint $ lies strictly inside $ \\mathcal{G} $.\n\nFinally we show that for this choice of $ outsidepoint $, if $ nonvertex $ and $ midpointnode $ are distinct vertices of $ \\mathcal{G} $, then\n\\[\n\\| outsidepoint-v_{0}\\left|-\\left|outsidepoint-v_{fragment}\\right|\\right| \\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 fragment^{2}}-o\\left(\\frac{1}{fragment^{fragment}}\\right) .\n\\]\n\nSince $ closenessmap_{tangentlength}\\left(straightness^{\\prime}\\right) $ is a decreasing function of $ |straightness^{\\prime}| $, the distances from $ outsidepoint $ to the vertices, in decreasing order, are\n$ closenessmap_{tangentlength}(straightness), closenessmap_{tangentlength}(straightness-2 \\pi / fragment), closenessmap_{tangentlength}(straightness+2 \\pi / fragment), closenessmap_{tangentlength}(straightness-4 \\pi / fragment), closenessmap_{tangentlength}(straightness+4 \\pi / fragment) $,\\ldots\nSince $ outsidepoint $ is within $ 1-\\cos (\\pi / fragment) \\leq \\pi^{2} /(2 fragment^{2}) $ of $(-1,0)$, this sequence is approximated by\n$ closenessmap_{1}(straightness), closenessmap_{1}(straightness-2 \\pi / fragment), closenessmap_{1}(straightness+2 \\pi / fragment), closenessmap_{1}(straightness-4 \\pi / fragment), closenessmap_{1}(straightness+4 \\pi / fragment), \\ldots $, with an error of at most $ \\pi^{2} /(2 fragment^{2}) $ for each term. The latter sequence is\n$ 2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{6 fragment}\\right), 2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{5 \\pi}{6 fragment}\\right), 2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{7 \\pi}{6 fragment}\\right), 2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{1 \\pi}{6 fragment}\\right), 2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{13 \\pi}{6 fragment}\\right), \\ldots $. Hence the consecutive differences in the original sequence are within $ \\pi^{2} / fragment^{2} $ of the differences for the approximating sequence, which are of the form\n\\[\n\\begin{array}{l} \n2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{(6 totality-5) \\pi}{6 fragment}\\right)-2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{(6 totality-1) \\pi}{6 fragment}\\right)=4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{(6 totality-3) \\pi}{6 fragment}\\right) \\sin \\left(\\frac{2 \\pi}{6 fragment}\\right) \\\\\n=4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{(6 totality-3) \\pi}{6 fragment}\\right)\\left(\\frac{2 \\pi}{6 fragment}\\right)-o\\left(\\frac{1}{fragment^{3}}\\right) \\\\\n\\text { or of the form } \\\\\n2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{(6 totality-1) \\pi}{6 fragment}\\right)-2 \\cos \\left(\\frac{(6 totality+1) \\pi}{6 fragment}\\right)=4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{6 totality \\pi}{6 fragment}\\right) \\sin \\left(\\frac{\\pi}{6 fragment}\\right) \\\\\n=4 \\sin \\left(\\frac{totality \\pi}{fragment}\\right)\\left(\\frac{\\pi}{6 fragment}\\right)-O\\left(\\frac{1}{fragment^{3}}\\right),\n\\end{array}\n\\]\nwhere $ 1 \\leq totality \\leq fragment / 2+O(1) $. If $ totality \\geq 3 $, then bounding the sines from below by their values at $ totality=3 $ and then applying $ \\sin x=x-O\\left(x^{3}\\right) $ as $ x \\rightarrow 0 $ shows that these differences in the approximating sequence exceed $ \\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 fragment^{2}}+\\frac{\\pi^{2}}{fragment^{2}} $ so the corresponding differences in the original sequence exceed $ \\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 fragment^{2}} $. For $ totality<3 $ (the first four differences), we forgo use of the approximating sequence and instead observe that for $ tangentlength=\\cos (\\pi / fragment) $ and fixed integer $ entirety $, Taylor series calculations give\n\\[\nclosenessmap_{tangentlength}\\left(\\frac{entirety \\pi}{3 fragment}\\right)=2-\\frac{\\left(18+entirety^{2}\\right) \\pi^{2}}{36 fragment^{2}}+O\\left(\\frac{1}{fragment^{4}}\\right),\n\\]\nwhich implies that the first four differences in the original sequence (between the terms corresponding to $ entirety=1,5,7,11,13 $ ) are at least $ \\frac{2 \\pi^{2}}{3 fragment^{2}}-o\\left(\\frac{1}{fragment^{2}}\\right) $. $ \\square $"
    },
    "garbled_string": {
      "map": {
        "p": "qzxwvtnp",
        "v_1": "hjgrksla",
        "v_2": "xmfhdiet",
        "v_i": "bwqlznec",
        "d_i": "tifqnzop",
        "d_i+1": "luxvczar",
        "d_2m+1": "ewjkbvaf",
        "w": "cydmhrun",
        "r": "nydgoeqp",
        "f_r": "zlmpxtov",
        "q_\\theta": "sbvauxiw",
        "q_0": "ajcphdru",
        "i": "kvseqzfo",
        "\\theta": "ypumdrab",
        "\\theta_1": "fzqodnsl",
        "\\theta_2": "vwatliek",
        "s": "rgxyeplu",
        "t": "mkhziwqa",
        "k": "lodrxfsg",
        "j": "pyghaltn",
        "v_0": "tbzcihuw",
        "v_n": "keonrjaf",
        "m": "czopnhyx",
        "n": "ewjrqmst",
        "A": "gqrvlydz"
      },
      "question": "Let $czopnhyx$ be a positive integer and let $\\mathcal{G}$ be a regular $(2czopnhyx+1)$-gon inscribed in the unit circle. Show that there is a positive constant $gqrvlydz$, independent of $czopnhyx$, with the following property. For any points $qzxwvtnp$ inside $\\cal G$ there are two distinct vertices $hjgrksla$ and $xmfhdiet$ of $\\cal G$ such that\n\\[\n\\left|\\,|qzxwvtnp-hjgrksla| - |qzxwvtnp-xmfhdiet|\\,\\right| < \\frac1{czopnhyx} - \\frac{gqrvlydz}{czopnhyx^3}.\n\\]\nHere $|rgxyeplu-mkhziwqa|$ denotes the distance between the points $rgxyeplu$ and $mkhziwqa$.",
      "solution": "Solution 1. The argument proceeds exactly as in the official text, with the variables renamed according to the above map. In particular we define $cydmhrun=2\\cos\\bigl(\\tfrac{\\pi}{4czopnhyx+2}\\bigr)$ and show that the $(2czopnhyx+1)$ distances $tifqnzop_1\\le\\cdots\\le tifqnzop_{2czopnhyx+1}$ from an interior point $qzxwvtnp$ to the vertices of $\\mathcal{G}$ lie in an interval of length $cydmhrun$. A simple pigeon\\-hole argument yields a pair of consecutive distances that differ by at most $cydmhrun/(2czopnhyx)$, and a Taylor expansion shows that\n\\[\\frac{cydmhrun}{2czopnhyx}<\\frac1{czopnhyx}-\\frac{gqrvlydz}{czopnhyx^{3}}.\\]\n\nSolution 2. Replacing $n$ with $ewjrqmst$ and the other symbols as in the map, the improved bound $\\pi^{2}/ewjrqmst^{2}$ (and the subsequent $(2/3)\\pi^{2}/ewjrqmst^{2}$ sharpening) is obtained exactly as in the official text."
    },
    "kernel_variant": {
      "question": "Let m be a positive integer and let \\(\\mathcal P\\) be a regular \\((2m+1)\\)-gon inscribed in a circle of radius \\(2\\).  Show that there exists a positive constant \\(A\\) (independent of \\(m\\)) with the following property.\nFor every point \\(p\\) lying on the circumcircle (that is, with \\(|p|=2\\)) there are two distinct vertices \\(v_1,v_2\\) of \\(\\mathcal P\\) such that\n\\[\n\\bigl|\\,|p-v_1|-|p-v_2|\\,\\bigr|\\;<\\;\\frac{2}{m}-\\frac{A}{m^{3}}\\,.\n\\]\n(The notation \\(|x-y|\\) denotes the usual Euclidean distance between points \\(x\\) and \\(y\\).)",
      "solution": "Let the centre of the circumcircle be O.  Because all lengths scale with the radius, the desired inequality will scale likewise; hence fixing the radius at 2 merely multiplies every length in the original unit‐circle argument by 2.\n\nSTEP 1 – A global bound on vertex–vertex distances.\nFor a regular (2m+1)-gon on a circle of radius 2, the greatest distance between two vertices occurs for the pair that subtend an angle 2πm/(2m+1) at O.  These two vertices together with O form an isosceles triangle with equal sides 2 and vertex angle 2πm/(2m+1); hence the base has length\n    w = 2·2·sin(½·2πm/(2m+1)) = 4 sin(πm/(2m+1)).\nSince πm/(2m+1)=π/2−π/(4m+2), this is\n    w = 4 cos(π/(4m+2)).\n\nSTEP 2 – Bounding the spread of the 2m+1 distances |p−v_i|.\nFix a point p on the circumcircle.  For any two vertices v_i,v_j, the triangle inequality gives\n    ||p−v_i| − |p−v_j|| ≤ |v_i−v_j| ≤ w.\nThus all the numbers |p−v_i| lie in some interval of length at most w.\n\nSTEP 3 – A small gap via the pigeonhole principle.\nOrder the 2m+1 distances increasingly:\n    d_1 ≤ d_2 ≤ … ≤ d_{2m+1}.\nThere are 2m consecutive gaps whose sum is at most w; hence at least one gap satisfies\n    d_{k+1} − d_k ≤ w/(2m).\nFor the two corresponding vertices v_k,v_{k+1} we therefore have\n    ||p−v_k| − |p−v_{k+1}|| ≤ w/(2m).\n\nSTEP 4 – Asymptotics of w/(2m).\nUsing the Taylor expansion cos x = 1 − x²/2 + O(x⁴) at x=π/(4m+2) we get, for large m,\n    w/(2m) = (4 cos(π/(4m+2)))/(2m) = (2/m) cos(π/(4m+2))\n           = (2/m)(1 − π²/(2(4m+2)²) + O(m^{−4}))\n           = 2/m − π²/(16 m³) + O(m^{−4}).\nConsequently\n    w/(2m) < 2/m − A/m³\nfor any fixed A < π²/16 and all sufficiently large m.  For the finitely many small values of m we can further decrease A so that the inequality still holds (note that always w/(2m) < 2/m).\n\nPutting the steps together, we have produced two vertices whose distance difference from p is strictly less than 2/m − A/m³, completing the proof with an absolute constant A>0 independent of m.",
      "_meta": {
        "core_steps": [
          "Bound the maximal vertex–vertex distance:  w = 2·cos(π/(4m+2)).",
          "Triangle–inequality ⇒ all 2m+1 distances |p–v_i| lie in an interval of length ≤ w.",
          "With 2m gaps between the ordered distances, pigeonhole ⇒ some gap ≤ w/(2m).",
          "Taylor–expand cos near 0:  w/(2m) = 1/m − (π²)/(32 m³)+o(m⁻³); choose any fixed A < π²/32 so w/(2m) < 1/m − A/m³."
        ],
        "mutable_slots": {
          "slot1": {
            "description": "Circumradius of the circle in which the polygon is inscribed (pure scaling – all lengths and the final bound scale together).",
            "original": "1"
          },
          "slot2": {
            "description": "Location constraint on p (only the triangle inequality is used, so p could lie anywhere in or even outside the polygon).",
            "original": "“p inside 𝒢”"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "checked": true,
  "problem_type": "proof"
}