Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2007

Geometry Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it India

Let wa,wb,wcw_a, w_b, w_c be the lengths of the internal angle bisectors of a triangle ABCABC with sides a,b,ca, b, c.
Let RR be its circum-radius. Prove that
b2+c2wa+c2+a2wb+a2+b2wc>4R. \frac{b^2 + c^2}{w_a} + \frac{c^2 + a^2}{w_b} + \frac{a^2 + b^2}{w_c} > 4R.

Solution

We use the standard
wa=2bccos(A/2)(b+c), etc. w_a = \frac{2bc \cos(A/2)}{(b+c)}, \text{ etc.}

The inequality takes the form
cyclic(b2+c2)(b+c)4Rbccos(A/2)>2. \sum_{\text{cyclic}} \frac{(b^2 + c^2)(b+c)}{4Rbc \cos(A/2)} > 2.
This may be put in the form
cyclic(b2+c2)(b+c)sin(A/2)2abc>1. \sum_{\text{cyclic}} \frac{(b^2 + c^2)(b+c) \sin(A/2)}{2abc} > 1.
But note that b2+c22bcb^2+c^2 \ge 2bc and b+c>ab+c > a. Hence it is sufficient to prove that cyclicsin(A/2)>1\sum_{\text{cyclic}} \sin(A/2) > 1. We start with the identity
cycliccosA=1+4cyclicsin(A/2), \sum_{\text{cyclic}} \cos A = 1 + 4 \prod_{\text{cyclic}} \sin(A/2),
which shows that cycliccosA>1\sum_{\text{cyclic}} \cos A > 1, in any triangle ABCABC. But, whenever A,B,CA, B, C are the angles of a triangle, we know that (πA)/2,(πB)/2,(πC)/2(\pi - A)/2, (\pi - B)/2, (\pi - C)/2 are also the angles of some other triangle. For this triangle, we get
cycliccos(πA2)>1. \sum_{\text{cyclic}} \cos \left( \frac{\pi - A}{2} \right) > 1.
It follows that
cyclicsinA2>1, \sum_{\text{cyclic}} \sin \frac{A}{2} > 1,
which is to be proved.

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