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Geometry Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it Ireland

Suppose Q=ABCDQ = ABCD is a cyclic quadrilateral. Prove that its longest diagonal doesn't exceed 2\sqrt{2} times its longest side, with equality holding iff QQ is a square.

Solution

Let a=ABa = |AB|, b=BCb = |BC|, c=CDc = |CD|, d=DAd = |DA| be the side lengths of QQ, and f=ACf = |AC|, g=BDg = |BD| the lengths of its diagonals. It's well-known and easy to prove that
f2=ab(c2+d2)+cd(a2+b2)ab+cd, f^2 = \frac{ab(c^2 + d^2) + cd(a^2 + b^2)}{ab + cd},
and
g2=ad(b2+c2)+bc(a2+d2)ad+bc. g^2 = \frac{ad(b^2 + c^2) + bc(a^2 + d^2)}{ad + bc}.
For instance, to obtain the formula for gg, apply the Cosine Rule in each of the triangles ABDABD and BCDBCD. Then
cosA=a2+d2g22ad,cosC=b2+c2g22bc. \cos A = \frac{a^2 + d^2 - g^2}{2ad}, \quad \cos C = \frac{b^2 + c^2 - g^2}{2bc}.
But, since QQ is cyclic, cosA=cosC\cos A = -\cos C, whence
0=2abcd(cosA+cosC)=bc(a2+d2g2)+ad(b2+c2g2)=bc(a2+d2)+ad(b2+c2)(ad+bc)g2. \begin{aligned} 0 &= 2abcd(\cos A + \cos C) \\ &= bc(a^2 + d^2 - g^2) + ad(b^2 + c^2 - g^2) \\ &= bc(a^2 + d^2) + ad(b^2 + c^2) - (ad + bc)g^2. \end{aligned}
Therefore
g2=ad(b2+c2)+bc(a2+d2)ad+bc, g^2 = \frac{ad(b^2 + c^2) + bc(a^2 + d^2)}{ad + bc},
i.e., g2=λ(a2+d2)+μ(b2+c2)g^2 = \lambda(a^2 + d^2) + \mu(b^2 + c^2), where
λ=bcad+bc,μ=adad+bc, \lambda = \frac{bc}{ad + bc}, \quad \mu = \frac{ad}{ad + bc},
so that λ,μ\lambda, \mu are positive numbers that sum to 1. Thus g2g^2 is a convex sum of a2+d2a^2 + d^2 and b2+c2b^2 + c^2, and so g2max(a2+d2,b2+c2)2max(a2,d2,b2,c2)g^2 \le \max(a^2 + d^2, b^2 + c^2) \le 2\max(a^2, d^2, b^2, c^2), whence
g2max(a,b,c,d). g \le \sqrt{2} \max(a, b, c, d).

Suppose a=ABa = |AB| is the longest side, and the diagonal gg is equal to 2a\sqrt{2}a. Then
2a2=λ(a2d2)+μ(2a2b2c2)=0. 2a^2 = \lambda(a^2 - d^2) + \mu(2a^2 - b^2 - c^2) = 0.
But 0<λ,μ0 < \lambda, \mu and a2max(b2,c2,d2)a^2 \ge \max(b^2, c^2, d^2). Hence d=b=c=ad = b = c = a and QQ is a rhombus. Because QQ is cyclic, it must then be a square.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.