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Geometry Difficulty 6.8 National Olympiad Prove it China

As shown in Fig. 11.1, the edge length of cube ABCDABCDEFGHEFGH is 22. Take any point P1P_1 on the incircle of square ABFEABFE, take any point P2P_2 on the incircle of square BCGFBCGF, and take any point P3P_3 on the incircle of square EFGHEFGH. Find the minimum and maximum of P1P2+P2P3+P3P1|P_1P_2| + |P_2P_3| + |P_3P_1|.

Figure 1
Fig. 11.1

Solution

According to the condition, we can set
P1(1,cosα1,sinα1),P2(sinα2,1,cosα2),P3(cosα3,sinα3,1). P_1(1, \cos \alpha_1, \sin \alpha_1), \quad P_2(\sin \alpha_2, 1, \cos \alpha_2), \quad P_3(\cos \alpha_3, \sin \alpha_3, 1).
We conventionally assume that P4=P1P_4 = P_1 and α4=α1\alpha_4 = \alpha_1. Denote
di=PiPi+1(i=1,2,3). d_i = |P_i P_{i+1}| \quad (i = 1, 2, 3).
Then
di2=(1sinαi+1)2+(1cosαi)2+(sinαicosαi+1)2. d_i^2 = (1 - \sin \alpha_{i+1})^2 + (1 - \cos \alpha_i)^2 + (\sin \alpha_i - \cos \alpha_{i+1})^2.
Denote f=P1P2+P2P3+P3P1f = |P_1P_2| + |P_2P_3| + |P_3P_1|.

We first find the minimum of ff. For i=1,2,3i = 1, 2, 3, according to (1) and the inequality of arithmetic and geometric means we get
di2(1sinαi+1)2+(1cosαi)212((1sinαi+1)+(1cosαi))2, d_i^2 \geq (1 - \sin \alpha_{i+1})^2 + (1 - \cos \alpha_i)^2 \\ \geq \frac{1}{2}((1 - \sin \alpha_{i+1}) + (1 - \cos \alpha_i))^2,
and thus di22(2sinαi+1cosαi)d_i \geq \frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}(2 - \sin \alpha_{i+1} - \cos \alpha_i). Therefore,
f=d1+d2+d322i=13(2sinαi+1cosαi)=3222i=13(sinαi+cosαi)=32i=13sin(αi+π4)323. f = d_1 + d_2 + d_3 \\ \geq \frac{\sqrt{2}}{2} \sum_{i=1}^{3} (2 - \sin \alpha_{i+1} - \cos \alpha_i) \\ = 3\sqrt{2} - \frac{\sqrt{2}}{2} \sum_{i=1}^{3} (\sin \alpha_i + \cos \alpha_i) \\ = 3\sqrt{2} - \sum_{i=1}^{3} \sin \left(\alpha_i + \frac{\pi}{4}\right) \\ \geq 3\sqrt{2} - 3.
When αi=π4\alpha_i = \frac{\pi}{4} (i=1,2,3i = 1, 2, 3), ff can take the minimum 3233\sqrt{2} - 3.

Then we will find the maximum of ff. By (1), it is clear that
di2=42cosαi2sinαi+12sinαicosαi+1. d_i^2 = 4 - 2 \cos \alpha_i - 2 \sin \alpha_{i+1} - 2 \sin \alpha_i \cos \alpha_{i+1}.
Note that sinαi1\sin \alpha_i \geq -1, cosαi1\cos \alpha_i \geq -1 (i=1,2,3i = 1, 2, 3), and then
i=13di2=122(i=13sinαi+1+i=13cosαi+i=13sinαicosαi+1)=122(i=13sinαi+i=13cosαi+1+i=13sinαicosαi+1)=182i=13(1+sinαi)(1+cosαi+1)18. \begin{aligned} \sum_{i=1}^{3} d_i^2 &= 12 - 2 \left( \sum_{i=1}^{3} \sin \alpha_{i+1} + \sum_{i=1}^{3} \cos \alpha_i + \sum_{i=1}^{3} \sin \alpha_i \cos \alpha_{i+1} \right) \\ &= 12 - 2 \left( \sum_{i=1}^{3} \sin \alpha_i + \sum_{i=1}^{3} \cos \alpha_{i+1} + \sum_{i=1}^{3} \sin \alpha_i \cos \alpha_{i+1} \right) \\ &= 18 - 2 \sum_{i=1}^{3} (1 + \sin \alpha_i)(1 + \cos \alpha_{i+1}) \leq 18. \end{aligned}
By the Cauchy inequality, we know that f23(d12+d22+d32)=54f^2 \leq 3(d_1^2 + d_2^2 + d_3^2) = 54, so f36f \leq 3\sqrt{6}.

When αi=π\alpha_i = \pi (i=1,2,3i = 1, 2, 3), ff can take the maximum 363\sqrt{6}. In conclusion, the minimum of ff is 3233\sqrt{2} - 3, and its maximum is 363\sqrt{6}. \square

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