Minimal triangulation of a polygon (Problems from MO category P, part 50)

Authors

  • Pavel Töpfer Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague

Abstract

With today's 50th anniversary part, we conclude the long-lasting series of articles in which we have gradually introduced you to selected competition problems from the Mathematical Olympiad of category P (programming). These 50 articles have been published on the pages of our magazine from 2000 to the present day, i.e. for a full 25 years. This time, we will show one classical combinatorial problem given in the national round of the 39th MO category P in the school year 1989/90. It deals with the so-called triangulation of a polygon, which means dividing its area into triangles by diagonals that do not cross each other anywhere. As we will see, an efficient solution to this problem will be based on the idea of dynamic programming, a method very often used not only in various competition problems but also in programming in general.

Published

2025-03-01

How to Cite

Töpfer, P. (2025). Minimal triangulation of a polygon (Problems from MO category P, part 50). MATHEMATICS–PHYSICS–INFORMATICS, 34(1), 69–75. Retrieved from https://mfi.upol.cz/index.php/mfi/article/view/901

Issue

Section

Informatics