STEP Mathematics Paper I 1988

4. If there are m points on the y axis and n on the x axis then there must be m line segments drawn
from each point on the x axis to the points on the y axis hence mn segments in total.
Let the points on the y axis have y coordinates y 1 , y 2 , y 3 , ..., y m and those on the x axis have x
coordinates x 1 , x 2 , x 3 , ..., x n . .
Consider two random points on each axis say x 1 , 0 , x 2 , 0 , 0, y 1 , 0, y 2
There are four line segments joining these points as shown in diagram.
as we are told to ignore the endpoints these segments result
in just one point of intersection. y2
Since this applies to all such random sets of four points
it follows that the total number of intersections is
nn1 mm1 nmn1m1
2  
2 4
y1
The random line joining x i , 0 to 0, y j will intersect all
segments from x p , 0 to 0, y q for p  i and q  j or
p  i and q  j hence giving i  1n  j  j  1m  i
if n ow m  n  3 this gives i  1n  j  j  1n  i
 ni  j  2n  2ij  i  j which is a minimum  0
when i  j  1 or i  j  n and a maximum when x1 x2
2 2
i  1, j  n or i  n, j  1 giving n  n  2n  3n  1  n  2n  1  (n  1 ) 2
n 2 n1 2
so excluding these four segments we have  2n  1 2 intersections on n 2  4 segm ents
4
n 2 n1 2 8n1 2 n 4 2n 3 7n 2 16n8
so average number per segment  
4(n 2 4 ) 4(n 2 4 )
3
n2(n 7n2 ) n 3 7n2
  4n2 as required.
4(n 2 4 )
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