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Geometry Difficulty 6.4 National olympiad Prove it Austria

We are given a tetrahedron with 5 edges of length 22 and one of length 11. A point PP either in the interior of the tetrahedron or on its surface (but not outside the tetrahedron) has distances from the surfaces of the tetrahedron we name a,b,ca, b, c and dd. For which points PP is the value of a+b+c+da+b+c+d minimal and for which is maximal?

Solution

The tetrahedron has two equilateral faces whose sides are of length 22, and two isosceles faces with two sides of length 22 and one of length 11. Let FF be the area of each equilateral face and GG the area of each isosceles face. It is obvious that F>GF > G holds. Further, let aa and bb be the distances of PP from the equilateral faces and cc and dd the distances from the isosceles faces.

If VV is the volume of the tetrahedron, we have
3V=F(a+b)+G(c+d)=F(a+b+c+d)(FG)(c+d)    a+b+c+d=3V+(FG)(c+d)F. \begin{align*} 3V &= F(a+b) + G(c+d) = F(a+b+c+d) - (F-G)(c+d) \\ &\iff a+b+c+d = \frac{3V + (F-G)(c+d)}{F}. \end{align*}
Since FG>0F - G > 0, the value of a+b+c+da+b+c+d is minimal for c+d=0c+d=0, which is the case for c=d=0c=d=0. The minimum value is therefore assumed for points PP on the common edge of the isosceles faces, i.e. on the edge with length 11.

On the other hand, we also have
3V=F(a+b)+G(c+d)=G(a+b+c+d)+(FG)(a+b)    a+b+c+d=3V(FG)(a+b)G. \begin{align*} 3V &= F(a+b) + G(c+d) = G(a+b+c+d) + (F-G)(a+b) \\ &\iff a+b+c+d = \frac{3V - (F-G)(a+b)}{G}. \end{align*}
Since FG>0F - G > 0, the value of a+b+c+da+b+c+d is maximal for a+b=0a+b=0, which is the case for a=b=0a=b=0. The maximum value is therefore assumed for points PP on the common edge of the equilateral faces.

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