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Source: original paper, printed p. 532, Theorem 2.

Statement

Every red-blue coloring of R3\mathbb R^3 has a red triangle with side lengths 1,1,21,1,\sqrt2 or a blue unit square. The blue square can be replaced by any rectangle with side lengths 1,s1,s, where 0<s≤10<s\le1.

Full proof

If there is a red triangle with side lengths 1,1,21,1,\sqrt2, we are done. Assume there is no such red triangle. If there is no red point, the blue conclusion is immediate. Otherwise choose a red point aa. If aa has no red unit neighbor, its unit sphere is entirely blue. That sphere contains the desired rectangle: after translating aa to zero, the four points

(±1/2, ±s/2, 3−s2/2)(\pm1/2,\ \pm s/2,\ \sqrt{3-s^2}/2)

lie on it and form a rectangle with sides 1,s1,s.

Otherwise choose a red point bb with ∣a−b∣=1|a-b|=1. Let Ca,CbC_a,C_b be the unit circles centered at a,ba,b in the planes perpendicular to b−ab-a. If a point cc on either circle were red, the points a,b,ca,b,c would form a red triangle with sides 1,1,21,1,\sqrt2. Thus both circles are blue.

Choose unit vectors u,vu,v perpendicular to b−ab-a with ∣u−v∣=s|u-v|=s. They exist in that two-dimensional perpendicular plane, since 0<s≤1<20<s\le1<2. Then

a+u,a+v,b+v,b+ua+u,\quad a+v,\quad b+v,\quad b+u

are blue and form a rectangle: one side is v−uv-u, the other is b−ab-a, they are perpendicular, and their lengths are s,1s,1. Taking s=1s=1 gives the square.

If there is no red unit pair, in particular there is no red right unit triangle, so this proves the blue-square conclusion in dimension three. It does not establish the planar assertion in Problem 214.