Problem

Source: 239 2000 S6

Tags: physics, combinatorics



$n$ cockroaches are sitting on the plane at the vertices of the regular $ n $ -gon. They simultaneously begin to move at a speed of $ v $ on the sides of the polygon in the direction of the clockwise adjacent cockroach, then they continue moving in the initial direction with the initial speed. Vasya a entomologist moves on a straight line in the plane at a speed of $u$. After some time, it turned out that Vasya has crushed three cockroaches. Prove that $ v = u $.