Solution: Day 4, problem 1
This is not really geometry at all, but algebraic number theory.
Without loss of generality, assume
that the sides of the polygon have length 1, and place it in the complex plane with B and C at 0 and
1, respectively, where A, B, C, D, ... are the vertices of the polygon. Then the rationality of
the angles at C, D, ... implies by induction that each of the vertices in turn is a sum of roots
of unity. Hence the number A is a sum of roots of unity and has absolute value 1.
Then A is an
algebraic unit in an abelian number field and has absolute value 1. But such a number has all its conjugates
of absolute value 1 (since if c denotes complex conjugation and s any other element of the Galois
group then we have |As|2 = As (As)c = As (Ac)s) = (A Ac)s= 1s = 1)
and hence is a root of unity by Kronecker's theorem.
For the counterexample, consider the (3, 4, 5) right triangle. By marking off unit distances on all sides,
starting at the vertices, we can think of it as an equilateral dodecagon with ten rational
angles (nine equal to 180
and one equal to 90
) and two non-adjacent irrational ones
(arctan(3/4) is irrational because 3/4 is not an algebraic integer and hence not a root
of unity).
It is also easy to give a counterexample with only 5 sides.
Return to the problems.
Don Zagier 1996