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Czech-Slovak-Polish Match

Geometry Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it Czech-Polish-Slovak Mathematical Match

Let ABCDABCD be a convex quadrilateral such that
∣AB∣+∣CD∣=2⋅∣AC∣and∣BC∣+∣DA∣=2⋅∣BD∣. |AB| + |CD| = \sqrt{2} \cdot |AC| \quad \text{and} \quad |BC| + |DA| = \sqrt{2} \cdot |BD|.
Prove that ABCDABCD is a parallelogram.

Solution

The result immediately follows from the following LEMMA. If ABCDABCD is any quadrilateral (convex or non-convex), then
(∣AB∣+∣CD∣)2+(∣BC∣+∣DA∣)2≥2∣AC∣2+2∣BD∣2, (|AB| + |CD|)^2 + (|BC| + |DA|)^2 \geq 2|AC|^2 + 2|BD|^2,
with the equality if and only if ABCDABCD is a parallelogram.

PROOF OF LEMMA. The vectors a=AB→\mathbf{a} = \overrightarrow{AB}, b=BC→\mathbf{b} = \overrightarrow{BC}, c=CD→\mathbf{c} = \overrightarrow{CD} and d=DA→\mathbf{d} = \overrightarrow{DA} obviously satisfy
a+b+c+d=0.(1) \mathbf{a} + \mathbf{b} + \mathbf{c} + \mathbf{d} = \mathbf{0}. \qquad (1)
Squaring the triangle inequalities
∣a∣+∣c∣≥∣a−c∣,∣b∣+∣d∣≥∣b−d∣,(2) |\mathbf{a}| + |\mathbf{c}| \geq |\mathbf{a} - \mathbf{c}|, \quad |\mathbf{b}| + |\mathbf{d}| \geq |\mathbf{b} - \mathbf{d}|, \qquad (2)
summing up and using the dot product, we get
(∣AB∣+∣CD∣)2+(∣BC∣+∣DA∣)2≥∣a⋅c∣2+∣b−d∣2=∣a∣2+∣b∣2+∣c∣2+∣d∣2−2a⋅c−2b⋅d=∣a+b∣2−∣c+d∣2−2(a+d)⋅(b+c)=2∣AC∣2−2DB‾⋅BD‾=2∣AC∣2+2∣BD∣2. \begin{aligned} (|AB| + |CD|)^2 + (|BC| + |DA|)^2 &\geq |\mathbf{a} \cdot \mathbf{c}|^2 + |\mathbf{b} - \mathbf{d}|^2 \\ &= |\mathbf{a}|^2 + |\mathbf{b}|^2 + |\mathbf{c}|^2 + |\mathbf{d}|^2 - 2 \mathbf{a} \cdot \mathbf{c} - 2 \mathbf{b} \cdot \mathbf{d} \\ &= |\mathbf{a} + \mathbf{b}|^2 - |\mathbf{c} + \mathbf{d}|^2 - 2(\mathbf{a} + \mathbf{d}) \cdot (\mathbf{b} + \mathbf{c}) \\ &= 2|\mathbf{AC}|^2 - 2 \overline{\mathbf{DB}} \cdot \overline{\mathbf{BD}} = 2|\mathbf{AC}|^2 + 2|\mathbf{BD}|^2. \end{aligned}
Thus the desired inequality is proven. If it is an equality, then (2) must become equalities as well, hence c=−pa\mathbf{c} = -p\mathbf{a} and d=−qb\mathbf{d} = -q\mathbf{b} for some positive real pp and qq. Substituting this into (1) yields
(1−p)a+(1−q)b=0, (1 - p)\mathbf{a} + (1 - q)\mathbf{b} = \mathbf{0},
hence both 1−p1-p and 1−q1-q vanish. Thus c=−a\mathbf{c} = -\mathbf{a} (and d=−b\mathbf{d} = -\mathbf{b}) which means that ABCDABCD is a parallelogram.

Conversely, if ABCDABCD is a parallelogram, then ∣AB∣=∣CD∣|AB| = |CD|, ∣BC∣=∣DA∣|BC| = |DA| and thus the proved inequality verges into the well-known parallelogram equality, which itself follows from our solution if we take (2) as two obvious equalities.

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