The area of a convex pentagon ABCDE is S, and the circumradii of the triangles ABC, BCD, CDE, DEA, EAB are R1, R2, R3, R4, R5. Prove the inequality R14+R24+R34+R44+R54≥5sin2108∘4S2
Solution
Solution:
Lemma 1. The area S of a convex n-gon A1A2…An satisfies 2S≤21i=1∑nAi−1Ai+1⋅Ri=i=1∑nRi2sinAi where Ri is the radius of the circumcircle of △Ai−1AiAi+1, and the indices are reduced modulo n (thus A0≡An and An+1≡A1).
Proof. Let Mi be the midpoint of AiAi+1, for 1≤i≤n. For each i consider the quadrilateral formed by the segments AiMi and AiMi−1, and by the perpendiculars onto these segments at Mi and Mi−1, respectively. We shall prove that these n quadrilaterals cover our n-gon. Indeed, let P be a point inside the n-gon. Let PAk be the least of the distances PAi, 1≤i≤n. Having PAk≤PAk+1 and PAk≤PAk−1 means P lies inside the n-gon and in each of the two half-planes containing Ak and limited by the perpendicular bisectors of AkAk+1 and AkAk−1, thus in the k-th quadrilateral. To complete the proof, it remains to notice that the area of the i-th quadrilateral does not exceed 2Ai−1Ai+1⋅2Ri, and also that of course 2Ai−1Ai+1=RisinAi.
Lemma 2. If α1,α2,…,α5 are the angles of a convex pentagon, then sin2α1+sin2α2+⋯+sin2α5≤5sin2108∘.
Proof. Will be presented at the end.
In the context of our problem, it follows that 2S≤∑i=15Ri2sinAi. Using the Cauchy-Schwarz-Bunyakovsky inequality and Lemma 2 we now obtain 2S≤i=1∑5Ri2sinAi≤(i=1∑5Ri4)(i=1∑5sin2Ai)≤5sin2108∘i=1∑5Ri4 whence 5sin2108∘4S2≤∑i=15Ri4.
Proof of Lemma 2. We may assume 0<α1≤α2≤⋯≤α5<180∘. By a well-known formula α1+α2+⋯+α5=540∘. If α1=108∘, then α2=⋯=α5=108∘, and the inequality becomes equality. If α1<108∘, then α5>108∘. Notice that α1+α5<270∘ (if α1+α5≥270∘, then α2+α3+α4≤270∘, so α2≤90∘, a fortiori α1≤90∘, and therefore α5≥180∘, a contradiction).
Therefore we arrive at sin2108∘+sin2(α1+α5−108∘)−sin2α1−sin2α5=2cos(α1+α5)sin(α1−108∘)sin(α5−108∘)>0. This means that by the replacement of α1 with 108∘ and of α5 with α1+α5−108∘ we increase the sum of the squared sinuses. Repeating this operation, we will make all the angles equal to 108∘, and the inequality is proved.
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