1997 USAMO Problems/Problem 4
Problem
To clip a convex -gon means to choose a pair of consecutive sides and to replace them by three segments and where is the midpoint of and is the midpoint of . In other words, one cuts off the triangle to obtain a convex -gon. A regular hexagon of area is clipped to obtain a heptagon . Then is clipped (in one of the seven possible ways) to obtain an octagon , and so on. Prove that no matter how the clippings are done, the area of is greater than , for all .