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I am working on this problem for some time, and I am not able to finish the argument:

There is a finite number of points in the plane, such that every triangle has area at most 1. Prove that the points can be covered by a rectangle of area 2.

My progress so far:

Consider the two points furthest apart, A and B. Draw lines through A and B, perpendicular to AB. Then every point has to be between the two lines, since AB has maximal length among our pair of points. Now take the points C and D, furthest apart from the line AB, on each of the two halfplanes determined by AB. Every other point in the plane has to be between the two lies through C and D, parallel to AB .

The rectangle determined by the four lines gives us an area of at most 4, but I feel like this argument can be improved somehow to give us the required area of 2.

Thank you! (Edit: thank you for the advice on posting problems here )

4 Answers 4