The number of isosceles right triangles determined by \(n\) points in convex position in the plane (Q701800)

A set of points in the plane is said to be in convex position if none of its elements is contained in the interior of a triangle determined by three others. A set of points in the plane is said to be in strictly convex position if none of its elements is contained in the convex hull of the others. The authors prove that in a set of \(n\) points in convex position one can find at most \(2n-4\) triples which induce congruent copies of a fixed isosceles right triangle. If the \(n\) coplanar points are in strictly convex position, then at most \(n\) triples of them induce congruent copies of a fixed isosceles right triangle. The lattice points in a \(k \times 1\) rectangle are in convex position and determine exactly \(4k+2\) congruent isosceles right triangle, so the first result is best possible. To see that the second theorem is tight, the authors consider the vertices of \(k\) unit squares with a common center. The proofs are elementary and use angles as one of the main tools.