Olympiad Maths Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 4.6 AIME Prove it Ukraine

In a convex quadrilateral ABCDABCD angles ABC\angle ABC and BCD\angle BCD are not less than 120120^\circ. Prove, that AC+BD>AB+BC+CDAC + BD > AB + BC + CD.

Solution

Let AB=aAB = a, BC=bBC = b, CD=cCD = c (Fig.18).

Then, AC2=a2+b22abcosBa2+ab+b2AC^2 = a^2 + b^2 - 2ab \cos \angle B \ge a^2 + ab + b^2.

By analogy, BD2b2+bc+c2AC+BDa2+ab+b2+b2+bc+c2BD^2 \ge b^2 + bc + c^2 \Rightarrow AC + BD \ge \sqrt{a^2 + ab + b^2} + \sqrt{b^2 + bc + c^2}.

Since a2+ab+b2>a+12b\sqrt{a^2 + ab + b^2} > a + \frac{1}{2}b and b2+bc+c2>c+12b\sqrt{b^2 + bc + c^2} > c + \frac{1}{2}b, then AC+BD>a+b+c=AB+BC+CDAC + BD > a + b + c = AB + BC + CD.

Figure 1
Fig.18

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