Let $n,k$ be integers such that $n\geq k\geq3$. Consider $n+1$ points in a plane (there is no three collinear points) and $k$ different colors, then, we color all the segments that connect every two points. We say that an angle is good if its vertex is one of the initial set, and its two sides aren't the same color. Show that there exist a coloration such that the total number of good angles is greater than $n \binom{k}{2} \lfloor(\frac{n}{k})\rfloor^2$
Problem
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Tags: combinatorics, graphing lines, Coloring
ShyMathGuy
02.08.2022 06:09
First of all I want to apologize if I've made any mistakes while writing the solution, I'm still learning English. Also I wonder why no one has posted a solution yet, I mean this problem is really nice, anyway here's mine.
Let us choose some point $P$ from the initial set. Let $Q_1,Q_2,\hdots,Q_n$ be the points of the initial set different from $P$ and let $0, 1,\hdots , k-1$ be the colors. For each pair of points $A$ and $B$, denote the color assigned to the segment $\overline{AB}$ by $f(A,B)$.
Consider a coloring such that $f(Q_i,Q_j)=i+j \bmod k$ and $f(P,Q_i)=2i \bmod k$ for any $Q_i$ and $Q_j$. We will show that this coloring satisfies the conditions of the problem.
Notice that, for each $i$, the segments passing through point $Q_i$ have assigned the colors $i+1,i+2,\hdots, 2i,\hdots, i+n \pmod k$. Since there are at least $\left \lfloor \frac{n}{k}\right \rfloor$ integers of the set $\{i+1,i+2,\hdots,i+n\}$ congruent to $m$ modulo $k$, for each $0\leq m\leq k-1$, it follows that there are at least $\left \lfloor \frac{n}{k}\right \rfloor$ segments of each color passing through $Q_i$. Then, given any pair of colors, the number of good angles formed only by segments of those colors is at least $\left \lfloor \frac{n}{k}\right \rfloor^2$. Since there are ${k \choose 2}$ possible pairs of colors, for each $i$ the number of good angles whose vertex is the point $Q_i$ is at least ${k \choose 2} \times {\left \lfloor \frac{n}{k}\right \rfloor}^2$. In particular, since there are $n$ points satisfying the above, the number of good angles is at least $n \times {k \choose 2} \times \left \lfloor \frac{n}{k}\right \rfloor^2$.
Finally, to see that the total number of good angles is strictly greater than this number, let's consider the segments $\overline{PQ_1}$ and $\overline{PQ_2}$, these segments have assigned the colors $2\pmod{k}$ and $4\pmod{k}$ respectively, since these colors are different from each other for all $k\geq 3$ we conclude that point $P$ is vertex of at least one good angle and therefore there are at least $$n \times {k \choose 2} \times {\left \lfloor \frac{n}{k}\right \rfloor}^2 +1$$good angles, concluding the problem.