Suppose Q=ABCD is a cyclic quadrilateral. Prove that its longest diagonal doesn't exceed 2 times its longest side, with equality holding iff Q is a square.
Solution
Let a=∣AB∣, b=∣BC∣, c=∣CD∣, d=∣DA∣ be the side lengths of Q, and f=∣AC∣, g=∣BD∣ the lengths of its diagonals. It's well-known and easy to prove that f2=ab+cdab(c2+d2)+cd(a2+b2), and g2=ad+bcad(b2+c2)+bc(a2+d2). For instance, to obtain the formula for g, apply the Cosine Rule in each of the triangles ABD and BCD. Then cosA=2ada2+d2−g2,cosC=2bcb2+c2−g2. But, since Q is cyclic, cosA=−cosC, whence 0=2abcd(cosA+cosC)=bc(a2+d2−g2)+ad(b2+c2−g2)=bc(a2+d2)+ad(b2+c2)−(ad+bc)g2. Therefore g2=ad+bcad(b2+c2)+bc(a2+d2), i.e., g2=λ(a2+d2)+μ(b2+c2), where λ=ad+bcbc,μ=ad+bcad, so that λ,μ are positive numbers that sum to 1. Thus g2 is a convex sum of a2+d2 and b2+c2, and so g2≤max(a2+d2,b2+c2)≤2max(a2,d2,b2,c2), whence g≤2max(a,b,c,d).
Suppose a=∣AB∣ is the longest side, and the diagonal g is equal to 2a. Then 2a2=λ(a2−d2)+μ(2a2−b2−c2)=0. But 0<λ,μ and a2≥max(b2,c2,d2). Hence d=b=c=a and Q is a rhombus. Because Q is cyclic, it must then be a square.
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